


Revelations

by Hester_Of_Ravenswood, TheLonelyDraconequus



Series: RWBY, but Pollination Style [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, No Smut, No enabler, Surprise Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 41,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23286811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hester_Of_Ravenswood/pseuds/Hester_Of_Ravenswood, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLonelyDraconequus/pseuds/TheLonelyDraconequus
Summary: I'm back! *children cry in the background* With a new part to my pollination AU and more surprise pairings for you to roll your eyes at or curse me for making you ship! (Yes, I somehow have more surprises up my sleeve for ships, and if you complain I'll make one WEIRDER THAN CIELPOLITAN!) Hope you enjoy!Side note: No enabler or smut
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee/Yang Xiao Long, Coco Adel/Velvet Scarlatina, Ilia Amitola/Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Neopolitan/Ciel Soleil, Penny Polendina/Winter Schnee
Series: RWBY, but Pollination Style [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1661938
Comments: 144
Kudos: 101





	1. Flights

The flight to Haven was long and arduous.

Several students had fallen asleep, including team RWBY. Blake was laying in Yang's lap while Ruby was on her other side, resting her hand on Blake's head, while Weiss was curled up underneath Ruby's arm, snoozing gently.

Across from them, Penny was sitting with Winter in her lap.

Penny was considering shutting off for some rest, it had been a long day, after all. But Winter shifting in her lap.

Penny looked down at her, finding that the other girl was waking up. Her icy blue eyes opened, and she looked up at Penny with surprise. Winter took a moment to consider before understanding seemed to dawn in her eyes as she sat up slightly. As she moved, she gasped in pain. Penny pushed her back down gently, leaning over her worriedly.

"You're still hurt. Do you remember what happened?" Penny asked.

Winter nodded, holding her arm with her other hand.

"Where are we going?"

"Haven Academy."

Winter nodded.

Penny leaned back down to check on Winter.

Winter was tired, and later she would blame that for her brashness. She was sore, and she was frustrated. She'd been torn away from Atlas, was likely a wanted criminal now, and was on a ship with her sister (also a criminal). Not to mention the fact that she hadn't gotten the power of the Winter Maiden and the girl holding her had.

But one fact stuck out to her, making her unable to stop herself.

She had feelings for Penny, of a scale she'd never felt before, and had for a long time.

Winter reached her uninjured arm up and wrapped it around Penny's neck. She pulled her down, but not with much strength. Penny allowed herself to be dragged down until her face was a centimeter from Winter's own. Winter tugged, but Penny didn't move, so the Schnee huffed and moved upward just a bit, connecting their lips.

Penny's lips were cold, as to be expected, but felt so life-like. Penny froze, but Winter took a moment to enjoy the sensation. It didn't matter that Penny's lips were metallic, even if they felt just like skin, and cold. Winter was used to the cold. Just as she was about to pull back, Penny wrapped her arms around her, moving closer and stopping her from leaving the embrace. Penny's lips warmed against her own, making Winter almost giggle like a school girl. The other girl was using her heaters on her lips, which Winter found absolutely adorable. Winter loathed to ruin the moment, but was forced to pull back to breathe. Penny seemed to have forgotten about people having to do that to survive, and gave her a concerned look.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Winter laughed, breathless from the kiss and her wounds, and shook her head.

"Breathing, Penny. I need to breathe."

Penny's eyes widened.

"Oh! Sorry, Friend Winter!"

Winter rolled her eyes and moved closer.

"People don't exactly kiss their friends, Penny."

Penny looked like a confused puppy.

"Oh?"

"I'd prefer girlfriend," she said, kissing Penny once again, almost laughing at Penny's surprised sound.

-

"I'm surprised you decided to help."

Neo glanced at Ciel, raising an eyebrow.

_'You should know by now that I'd do anything for you, Gorgeous.'_

Ciel gave her a fond smile and Neo winked at her, moving closer.

_'I'd do it for free, too, but I would enjoy some sort of payment.'_

Ciel scoffed, but let Neo press their lips together, melting into the embrace.

-

"So we're going to Menagerie?" Yatsu asked.

Velvet nodded.

"To fight the White Fang?" Fox questioned.

Velvet nodded again.

"Sounds about right," Coco said, wrapping her arm around Velvet.

"What did we say about being gross?!" Fox cried.

Coco smirked at him.

"And what did I say about that just making me want to do it more?" she asked, giving Velvet a quick peck.

They both groaned.

-

Jaune glanced at Nora and Ren.

"So, you two are... together now?" he asked.

"Yep!" Nora cried as Ren nodded.

Jaune forced a smile.

"That's great, guys."

"Thanks!" Nora said, grinning at him in that adorable way she always did.

"Guess that upgrades me from third wheel to fifth, huh?" he asked, trying not to show his sadness.

Ilia snickered and Pyrrha shushed her.

"You're our leader, Jaune. You're not a fifth wheel," Ren said.

Nora nodded.

"You're an important member of this, Jaune," Nora said.

Jaune smiled back at them, thanking the two quietly and making sure not to say anything else, for fear of messing it up.

-

Qrow took another shot, and Oscar watched him nervously.

"What're you lookin at, kid?" he slurred. Qrow thought he deserved to drink a little after the day he'd had.


	2. Landings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone: Ciel x Neo isn't a real ship.  
> Me: Yes it is. Look, it's got its own tag! *points to the only work in the tag, my own*

Weiss' eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at Ruby, who smiled down at her fondly.

"Hey, Angel," she whispered happily.

Weiss glanced to the side and saw that Blake was asleep, sprawled out in Yang and Ruby's lap as she napped, ears twitching gently every once in a while.

Weiss sat up slightly, looking around the airship.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, as far as I know," Yang said.

Weiss' gaze shot around the room, and she caught sight of team JNIPR, Neo, Penny, Ciel, and Winter in there with them.

Weiss let out a breath of relief as she looked at Winter. Her sister was sitting beside Penny, the two whispering to one another quietly. Weiss was glad that her sister seemed calmer than before. She was even smiling! Weiss could hardly believe it. She never got to see her sister smile!

Penny laughed quietly and Winter watched her with a fond expression. She was still clearly beat up, her black eye and the deep gash on her arm sticking out like a sore thumb (or rather sore EVERYTHING).

"Where are we going again?" Weiss asked, keeping her voice low.

"Haven Academy. Or at least nearby. Uncle Qrow wants to meet up with us. He said he has to show us something," Yang said.

"What?"

"I don't know," Yang said, shrugging.

Weiss sighed, running a hand through her hair. She had overestimated how well her hair tie was clinging to her hair, and it fell out. She went to get it back, but paused when she saw Ruby.

Ruby grinned at her, and Weiss felt slightly awkward, glancing around in an attempt to see what her excitable girlfriend could be looking at.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"It's cute when you let your hair down!" Ruby said quietly, yet excited.

Weiss flushed. She always kept it in her side ponytail, mostly for functionality during fights.

"She's right," Yang said, grinning at her.

Weiss was about to deny it, but stopped when Yang pulled out her scroll, taking a picture.

Weiss blushed deeply.

"What'd you do that for?" she hissed.

"Blake's asleep, but she _deserves_ the right to see this," Ruby said. Yang nodded excitedly before chiming in, "Plus, I want to be able to show off how hot my girlfriend is."

"Speaking of," Ruby said, pulling out her own scroll and taking a shot of the slumbering Blake, a fond smile on her face.

Weiss tried to ignore the deep red color of her face.

She pointed at Yang and said, "Delete that photo," before turning to Ruby and adding, "And send me that one."

"Nope!" Yang said.

"Okay!" Ruby said.

"Weiss, I would very much appreciate it if you and your girlfriends kept it down," Winter said from across the airship.

The former heiress flushed and shook her head, about to respond.

"Let them have their fun, Girlfriend Winter," Penny said.

Weiss' eyes widened and her gaze shot to her sister.

The older Schnee grimaced just barely.

" _Girlfriend_ Winter?" Weiss asked, a smug smirk overtaking her features.

"Yes!" Penny said excitedly.

Winter nodded silently, and Weiss relished the moment before speaking.

"Why don't _you_ and your girlfriend keep it down, Winter, mine's trying to sleep."

Winter rolled her eyes and Penny gasped.

"I apologize, Friend Weiss, I didn't realize that Friend Blake was trying to sleep!"

Weiss and Yang stared at Penny with raised eyebrows while Winter gave her a slightly fond look.

Weiss settled back in her seat, considering closing her eyes for a minute of sleep, before the airship jerked.

The heiress jumped, putting a hand on Ruby steadyingly. The two sisters had done the same with Blake, keeping the faunus from going flying off of their laps.

"Ship XJ-107, please land for inspection," a voice said over the communicator.

There was an unfamiliar voice from the front of the plane.

"Oh no, I recognize that annoying voice," the woman said.

A small old woman with odd eye goggles came into the back of the airship.

"Anyone here know how to fly?"

Everyone shook their heads, and she sighed. A single hand raised into the air, and the old woman laughed.

"Definitely not you," she said, looking Neo up and down, "You'd be far too recognizable."

Neo crossed her arms, rolling her eyes, and Ciel scoffed at her girlfriend's reaction.

"Wake her up," the woman said, gesturing vaguely at Blake.

Yang sighed before gently shaking Blake, causing the faunus to jump, once again almost falling onto the floor.

"Sorry, Kit-Kat," Yang said, helping Blake sit up.

"What's happening?" Blake said, holding back a yawn as she stood.

"We're getting searched, and you're all wanted criminals, right?"

Everyone nodded, except for Winter, who shook her head.

Penny glanced at her girlfriend before looking down at her lap.

"Um, actually, Girlfriend Winter, you are. When they couldn't find you, they assumed you joined us and put you on the wanted list as well."

Winter sighed, rubbing her temple in frustration.

"Do you wish to return to Atlas?" Penny asked, her hands fidgeting nervously.

"I'm in far too deep to dig myself out now," Winter said, shaking her head.

Penny looked confused.

"No, Penny, I'm not returning to Atlas."

Penny smiled at her, and the old woman rolled her mechanical eyes.

"There's more important things going on right now," she said, snapping to get everyone's attention.

"We need to hide you."

"Where will we be?" Blake asked, frowning.

"In the cargo bin. Hide, because they might search it."

"Who are you? Why are you helping us?" Winter asked distrustfully. Weiss had been about to ask the same thing.

"My name's Maria. And as for why I'm helping you?" she shrugged, smirking, "Seemed like you needed it. Plus, this'll sure be one heck of a story."

Ruby laughed, and Maria turned her gaze to the young team leader, raising an eyebrow. She looked her in the eyes for a long moment before turning around, facing the rest of them.

"I have no idea what I'm doing."

"From what I've seen, I'd say that happens most the time."

She turned, looking over them all.

"You and you can stay. You're not on the list of wanted," Maria said, pointing at Ilia and Ciel.

 _'I'll think of you every moment until we meet again. When I see the moon, I'll think of you, and know you're watching it too,'_ Neo signed.

Ciel laughed, rolling her eyes.

"You're going to be down there for half an hour, at most. Stop being so dramatic."

Neo put a hand to her chest in shock.

_'Why, Gorgeous, you wound me! I've told you countless times that you make me weak in the knees, dramatic though it may be!'_

Ciel blushed, shoving her toward the cargo deck.

"Go, you idiot."

Neo grinned at her own her shoulder before stepping onto the cargo deck, following several other occupants of the airship.

Winter stared at Ciel, shaking her head in disbelief.

"You could do better," she said.

Ciel shook her head, watching Neo fondly as she dropped into the cargo bay.

"No, I couldn't. It's not about doing 'better' or 'worse' than you could. It's about finding the person that's right for you. The person that completes you. I'm a worse person without her, and she's a worse person without me."

Winter stared at her, raising an eyebrow.

"She's a criminal."

"So are we."

"That's... different."

Ciel made purposeful eye contact.

"You're saying that the situation warranted what we were forced to do."

Winter nodded.

"Maybe Neo's situation did too. Do you know what it was?"

Winter hesitated.

"That's what I thought."

Maria walked forward, gaining their attention.

"Sit down and be quiet. And you," she pointed at Winter, "hurry it up."

Winter went into the cargo bay, limping slightly, and Maria went to the front of the airship, considering.

"I thought you had a point," the other girl ssaid.

Ciel turned, taking a moment to try and remember what her name was. She came up with it after a short struggle.

"Thank you, Ilia."

"Pyrrha said something like that to me once. Something about how there's no leagues, and people fall in love with who they fall in love with."

Ciel smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but Maria stalking back into the room interrupted her.

"You," she pointed at Ciel, "I need you to pilot us to the ground."

"What?!"

"I don't have an exactly... good relationship with the woman we're meeting."

"I can't fly!"

"Just sit in the pilot's seat and shut up. I'll land it and hide. You two just need to do the talking."

Ilia's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"No, no, that's not a good idea," she said quickly.

"No other option, kid. Just sit there and be quiet."

Ilia panicked, glancing at Ciel and then the old woman, who trudged back to the front and guided them toward the ground.

Ciel and Ilia exchanged a look of worry before Ciel was forced into the pilot's seat, just as the door opened and Maria threw herself into the cargo bay.


	3. Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't have one normal ship, can I?

Ciel could hear her heart pounding in her ears. She scrambled in an attempt to remember how cold she had been before. She'd gotten better about showing she felt and not being so stuck up, Neo and Penny had been a good influence on her for that, but now she was starting to regret that. She needed to be professional and emotionless. Beside her, in the copilot seat, Ilia was panicking, her breath coming in and out in short breaths. She was wondering if Ilia should have gone down into the cargo bay instead of staying with Ciel, because she was doing far worse than Ciel herself when it came to freaking out. But, as the door slid open, she realized that it was far too late.

Ciel took a deep breath and steadied herself, making her eyes go dull and her gaze become slightly impatient, though mostly emotionless.

Ilia attempted to copy her, but didn't do quite as well.

-

In the cargo bay, silence held.

Jaune was sandwiched in between Nora and Ren, though he had no idea how that unfortunate situation had come to pass.

Nora was pushed up against him, though he couldn't see well enough to know what was causing her to press up beside him. Ren sat silently, back stiff, but didn't offer any extra room for Jaune as he was shoved against the stoic man. Jaune groaned internally. He wished that he could be almost anywhere else. Like with Pyrrha. Pyrrha was safe and kind and didn't give him confusing feelings that he certainly didn't want to think through.

-

Blake could see, and more importantly hear, Ruby's leg as it bounced up and down impatiently.

She reached a hand out and put it on Ruby's knee, giving her a meaningful look. Ruby squinted at her, and Blake was forced to realize that humans had _far_ worse night vision than her. Because of this, she moved Ruby and Weiss, the two girlfriends sitting at her sides, closer to her. She always felt nervous when her girlfriends were in dark, because she didn't know how disabled they were in the dark, because it had never really been dark for her eyes.

-

Pyrrha glanced up at the ceiling, silently hoping that Ilia would be able to keep her cool. She knew that Ilia was definitely very awkward in these sort of situations. Not to mention their lives might very well be depending on this.

-

"Why, may I ask, are you boarding my airship?" Ciel asked, making her voice low and just a touch of impatience away from monotone.

"There was a tragedy back in Atlas, did you not hear?" a guard asked as he started searching the ship.

"I did. I'm not sure what that has to do with you boarding my airship and searching it without my permission."

"There are several dangerous criminals that escaped, and there is a worldwide search for them, including stopping any airships exiting from Atlas."

"I see," Ciel said, "I do hope that you hurry, because I have a shipment of medication going to a hospital in Haven."

"Of course, ma'am," the two guards said together, hurrying through the ship.

Another form stepped into the room. She was a short woman, even more so than Ilia and Ciel, with an expression on her face that looked like she had swallowed a lemon.

"Is that so?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Why would a student such as yourself be carrying such important medicine?"

"I'm a registered pilot, and Atlas just went down in flames. They didn't really care who they sent out, as long as they'd get the job done."

"And what is your name?" she asked.

"Ciel Soliel."

"And your copilot?"

"I-Ilia Amitola, ma'am," the faunus stuttered. Her scales shifted colors for the briefest of moments, and the woman's eyes narrowed.

"I see they really didn't care who they sent, even those of... questionable character," the woman muttered.

Ilia curled in on herself.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're referring to, ma'am," Ciel said, eyes narrowing.

The woman watched her with narrowed eyes, looking at her guards. They had opened the door to the cargo bay and were, loudly, making their way inside.

Ciel felt her heart racing, and she turned away.

Ilia gasped quietly, and Ciel tried to distract the faunus by snapping her fingers, gesturing at the front of the windshield. Ciel wondered vaguely if she had picked up snapping to get someone's attention from Neo, and she hoped not. It was always rather jarring when Neo did that.

-

Blake heard the footsteps immediately, listening with her heart pounding as heavy boots stepped closer and closer, sliding the door open.

Blake pushed Ruby, Yang, and Weiss onto the floor, thankful they were silent, before making her way through the dark room, forcing the rest of the people in the room to hide behind various objects or lie on the ground.

Blake threw herself to the ground, landing on Yang to muffle the sound and eliciting a quiet sound of surprise from the blond, and listened as the two guards hurried through the room.

-

Jaune found himself, once again, found himself sandwiched in between Nora and Ren after Blake had pushed them to the ground. He wasn't sure how this had happened once more, and he hated it.

Nora was resting on his chest, and he could just barely see the light of her bright blue eyes staring into his own. She was holding her breath as she listened to the boots of the nearby guards, but Jaune could barely hear them with his heart pounding in his ears. Jaune himself was curled up against Ren, head on his shoulder, probably because Blake wanted them to take up as little room as possible. Ren had his arm on the floor underneath Jaune, and had shifted it so that it was more comfortably, leaving it now looped around Jaune's shoulders.

Jaune barely even noticed the guard that paused right beside them, eyes searching in the dark for anything suspicious.

-

Winter barely kept herself from groaning as her arm hit the floor.

Penny grabbed onto her gently, her hand suddenly turning almost unbearably cold as she reached outward, setting it on Winter's arm, which was deeply bruised and scratched.

Winter gasped, but the ice cold touch seemed to relieve the pain. Penny's other hand was set on her ribs, turning it just as cold as the first.

Winter gave a small smile, sure that Penny could see it in the dark.

-

"Are your men having a tea party down there? You've been in my airship for exactly eight minutes," Ciel said, staring the woman in the eyes, keeping herself from showing her fear.

"They're doing their job, citizen, for the betterment of Atlas!" the woman said, her eyes turning excited at the mention of Atlas.

"I see. Well, I hope the betterment of Atlas won't take much longer, because I'm on a deadline."

There was a moment of silence in the air before the two guards appeared in the main room.

"The ship is clear! Have a good day and flight, ma'am!" the guards said. The woman, perhaps a general, eyed Ilia and Ciel suspiciously for a moment before heading out of the airship.

Ciel slammed her hand against the button to close the door, and Ilia slumped in her seat, panting.

"Dust, I don't know how that worked," she muttered.

"Me neither," Ciel responded.

She eyed the controls for a long minute before turning on the engine, which was their signal.

A minute later, Maria stepped out of the cargo bay, complaining about her hips, and hurried forward. She slid something out of her mechanical glasses and into the ship, pushing Ciel out of the pilot's seat and sitting down.

"Alright! Let's get out of here before they realize their mistake," she said, immediately starting up the rest of the ship and starting its lift off.

-

"Thanks for the ice," Winter said.

"Of course, Girlfriend Winter!"

Winter flushed just slightly.

"You know, you don't have to say 'girlfriend Winter,' you can just call me by my name."

Penny faltered.

"Do you not enjoy me calling you my girlfriend?" she asked in confusion.

"Of course I do, Penny, I was just saying that you don't have to."

"Then I choose to, Girlfriend Winter!" she said happily.

Winter tried not to sigh, even though it was adorable.

-

"Uh, Nora, I think that was the signal."

Nora looked down at Jaune, a small smirk on her face.

"You think? I didn't hear it."

"It was the engine, Nora. The ship's flying," Jaune said, trying to ignore

"Is it?"

"It is," Ren said, but he didn't move his arm from around Jaune's shoulders.

"You three coming?" Pyrrha asked, frowning as she looked down at them.

Jaune blushed.

"Yes! Yes, we're coming!" he cried, scrambling to his feet.

Nora almost didn't let him up, but she eventually did.

-

"We'll be there in a few hours. Have a seat," Maria said, not looking over her shoulder as the students walked into the main section of the airship.


	4. Spring Cleaning

Emerald growled, but this caused her to go into a coughing fit, the inside of her throat giving her the sensation of two piece of sandpaper rubbing against one another. She reached for a water and gratefully downed it, letting out a breath of relief.

She was tired of having to spend her days in recuperation with Salem. Not only was it planned to take far too much time, but it was nerve wracking to be so close to her leader. She missed having Cinder with her. The other woman had always made her feel safe, even when Cinder was the source of some of her... abuse. But how could she not miss Cinder? She was the only person in all of Remnant that had ever been remotely kind to her. The bad times couldn't outweigh the good ones, right? Emerald shook her head, glancing down at her arm, which was now starting to regrow, even though it had only been cut off yesterday. It was a painful process that she wished she didn't have to go through. She swore to herself that she'd have her revenge on Winter and Ruby, putting them on the list with Ilia and especially Pyrrha for their part in Cinder's death.

Emerald saw Salem watching her, and she quickly set down the water glass, trying to seem professional and put together.

"Your last chance starts as soon as we've finished your recovery, Emerald, I do hope you don't fail me again, like Cinder before you."

Emerald ground her teeth together.

"Your mission," Salem drawled, "is to get the power of the Spring Maiden. Watts assures me he has some information on her location, so I expect nothing less than you returning here with her head on a stick, powers in hand."

Emerald gulped, forcing herself to nod.

"I... will..," she forced herself to say, throat aching and voice croaking.


	5. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The grinch sneaking through the village to steal Christmas is me trying to find a character I haven't put in a ship to make them a surprise pairing. Like seriously I have one planned, if someone has ideas please give me your knowledge.
> 
> Oh! Also, I love doing Disney AUs, but I am STRUGGLING to come up with one for four characters (almost like Disney movies were designed to have relationships specifically with two people). Any suggestions? I was THIS close to doing a Frozen one, but Weiss would be Elsa and Ruby would have to be Anna which WOULD NOT work. So, suggestions PLEASE!

The airship had a rather bumpy landing (perhaps that's what they deserved for letting a blind old lady fly them...) but they were in Haven now.

The students started to file out of the airship, but Ruby was halted by a hand on her shoulder. She turned and found herself facing Maria.

"Hello?" she asked in confusion.

"Tell me, what color are your eyes?"

Ruby glanced outside of the airship, seeing that her teammates were watching from a few meters away.

"Silver," Ruby said slowly, looking down at the woman.

"That's what I thought."

"How did you know?" Ruby asked, frowning.

"Isn't it obvious? I had silver eyes too."

Ruby stared at her in shock.

"You did?!"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

Maria's smile faltered.

"That's a story best saved for another day."

Maria walked off, her head slightly downcast, and Ruby was left watching her go.

Blake put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Ruby nodded slowly.

"Something... happened before, Blake. It happened at Beacon, and it happened again today," Ruby said.

"What did she say?" Weiss asked, watching Maria go with a dark glare. All she knew was that it had upset Ruby.

"She was talking about having silver eyes," Blake whispered.

Weiss had a mental image of earlier that day, when Ruby had made Emerald disappear with a blast of silver from her eyes.

"What else did she say?"

"Nothing," Ruby said.

"Don't worry, Rubes. We won't let anything happen to your eyes," Yang said.

Blake nodded, and Weiss glanced away from Maria, her eyes turning slightly kinder.

Ruby let out a breath of relief, smiling at them thankfully.

Before they could continue, a voice interrupted.

"You four coming?" Nora asked, glancing over her shoulder.

"Yeah!" Ruby said. Despite the rather concerning new information she'd received from Maria, she couldn't wipe the smile from her face. She knew that she had the look of a lovesick fool, but she didn't care.

As they walked, she grabbed onto Weiss' hand and held it tightly, almost worried that the former heiress would pull away, as she was famously wary of affection, especially in public. But Weiss squeezed her hand back gently. Ruby grinned and followed team JNIPR.

They were heading toward a nearby bar, which certainly didn't surprise the two sister.

"Of course this is where we'd find him," Yang muttered.

Ruby was forced to agree, but she didn't want to say anything. She was always good at seeing the good in people, especially those she cared about, but even she had to admit that her Uncle had quite the problem with alcohol.

They stepped inside, and were instantly hit by the familiar scent of alcohol and disappointment.

Ruby's eyes locked on Uncle Qrow, who was slumped over the bar with a young boy, who was watching him with worried eyes.

"Uncle Qrow," Ruby whined.

Qrow turned, sloppily, to see his niece, a small smile growing on his lips.

"Kid!" he said. He tried to stand, but stumbled and fell back against the bar.

The boy beside him was able to stop Qrow from falling over the bar.

"Is he always like that?" Nora asked.

Yang sighed.

"Yes, he is," she said.

Qrow beckoned the students toward him, a drunken smile on his lips.

"We did it! I found him!" he called.

The young boy laughed awkwardly, waving at the students.

"Found who, Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked, hurrying forward to steady him.

"Oz!"

Ruby looked at him worriedly.

"Uncle Qrow, Ozpin's dead."

Qrow waved a hand, gesturing at the kid.

"This is Oz!" he said.

"I'm so sorry for him," Yang said, turning to face the kid.

"No, uh... he's right," he said.

The two teams glanced at him.

"I'll... explain later. How about we just get him back to where he's been staying?"

Pyrrha stepped forward and helped Yang with Qrow, the two guiding him toward the exit.

-

Once they'd finally got Qrow to the house he was staying at, which was shockingly nice, and set him on the couch. He fell asleep quickly, sprawled out and snoring loudly.

"Alright, kid, tell us what you're talking about," Yang said, staring at the boy.

"Um...," he took a second to think before starting to mutter to himself.

A minute later, his eyes changed color dramatically.

"Hello, students," the familiar voice of Ozpin said.

Nora gasped dramatically enough for the the entire group.

"What?!" she cried.

-

About half an hour later, and a bunch of lore dump later, everyone was seated around the room, some on the floor as they thought.

"So... you've been alive for thousands of years?" Nora asked.

"In a loose sense of the word, I suppose."

"And you think Salem's coming for the Haven relic?"

"The Lamp, yes. She's going to strike in about a month. Until then, I'll be training you and Oscar."

His eyes started to change and Pyrrha tried to stop him.

"Wait!"

But it was too late, and they were left with Oscar, who gave them an awkward smile.

"I can bring him back, if you want... maybe. I'm not sure, this whole thing is...," he sighed, "odd."

"No, it's alright. We need some time to think anyways," Ruby said comfortingly, "Maybe you should take a few minutes too."

Oscar gave her a small smile.

"Thanks," he muttered. He walked out of the house, looking out at the sky with another groan, putting his head in his hands. He still half thought he was going insane.

Ruby followed him with her eyes, glancing up at the sky. It was getting dark, and the weight of the day suddenly hit her. Her limbs felt heavy and she yawned. As if hers had been a catalyst, everyone around her seemed to sag with a previously unseen weight. Winter staggered slightly, and Penny caught her.

"Girlfriend Winter," the older Schnee flushed slightly and kept her eyes off of the surrounding students, "you need some rest."

"I'm fine, Penny."

Despite Winter's denial, Penny grabbed her and lifted her into the air.

Winter let out an uncharacteristic sound of shock and Penny hurried out of the room, presumably to find a bed to let her girlfriend sleep in.

Weiss laughed, though even that made her exhausted.

"I think we should get some rest too," she said, yawning.

Nora grabbed onto Ren's hand and Jaune's wrist.

"Just because there's four of you doesn't mean we're letting you have the spare bed!" she said, racing out of the room with them in tow. Jaune almost fell on his face, but was able to steady himself just before it happened.

Pyrrha grabbed a pillow off the couch and set it on the ground, laying down. Ilia curled up at her side and seemed to fall asleep almost instantly.

 _'I'm not that nice, Gorgeous. Let's catch up to those three idiots and steal the bed,'_ Neo signed.

Ciel laughed and slapped her on the arm.

"There's a couch in the other room I saw, you four can have it," she said to team RWBY.

_'You betrayed me, Gorgeous.'_

"Stop complaining and go to sleep," Ciel said, rolling her eyes and laying down on the ground across the room from Pyrrha and Ilia.

Neo sighed dramatically.

Ruby promptly fell asleep, her dreams an odd mix of Salem, silver eyes, and her teammates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this OFFICIALLY puts this story over 100k words. Am I proud of myself? Yes. Should I be? No.


	6. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So we just finished volume 7, and I'm having to backtrack some. I skipped 4, using team CFVY to cover the stuff with Blake, and there's so much for season 5 that just doesn't matter anymore, so I just started it, but we're almost done with that! Which means I have to do whatever's applicable for volume 6, but that won't be much with Adam dead (as he should be)!
> 
> So... I just have to kill Salem and move on, pretty much. Not gonna be too hard, I already know how they're gonna do it in canon, so this'll be easy. Hope you enjoy this and the fluff to come after Salem's gone!

Velvet was grinning excitedly, something that Coco didn't get to see often enough. Velvet was bouncing up and down on her toes, jumping off of the airship as soon as it landed. Coco followed after her, holding her bag tightly and looking around distrustfully. She knew that this was supposed to be a peaceful island, on the whole, but there was a reason their team had been called hear to help.

"You're excited, Honeybun," Coco noted.

A nearby faunus, which had a long dog tail that dragged across the ground, glared at Coco.

Velvet flushed and glanced at her girlfriend.

"Maybe you shouldn't call me that here."

"Why?"

"Some people might find it... offensive," Velvet said.

Coco grimaced.

"Right," she said awkwardly.

Fox laughed at her and Coco glared at him.

"They should be here by now," Yatsu said.

"Who?" Coco asked.

"The people we're supposed to meet. Did you even pay attention?" Fox asked.

"No. I was the one that was supposed to get the information from Ilia," she said.

"Yeah, but we have to give the information _to_ someone," Fox said, rolling his eyes.

Velvet laughed quietly and Coco couldn't believe she'd betrayed her.

"It's Blake's parents, right?" Fox asked.

"Yes."

"Is it racist to ask if they're cat faunus too?" Fox asked.

"Yes," a low voice said.

Fox spun and was met by a large, imposing man that stood almost as tall as Yatsu. His arms were folded against his chest, and he stared down at Fox with a scowl.

"I'm sorry for my teammate," Velvet said quickly, her ears dropping slightly, "my name's Velvet, and this is Coco, Yatsu, and Fox." As she spoke, she gestured at each of them as she said their names.

"I wasn't aware she was sending humans," Ghira said, raising an eyebrow.

"That a problem?" Coco asked.

"You'll just stick out, dear," Kali said, giving her a kind smile.

"Don't worry, she does that anyways," Fox said, laughing.

"Don't listen to him, he's an idiot," Coco said.

Velvet giggled quietly, hitting Coco on the arm gently.

"Come on, we're drawing attention," Ghira said, gesturing for the four students to follow him as he headed toward his house.

-

Ruby threw herself to the side, barely avoiding an attack from Oscar.

Oscar was able to strike her in the face, making Yang snicker in the back ground, and Ruby grabbed her nose, glaring at Oscar.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" he said.

Ruby hit him in the chest, sending him back a few feet as he hit the ground.

"Ha! Yes! I did it!" she celebrated for a moment before growing concerned, "Oscar?"

Oscar stood and his back went straight, eyes glowing yellow. A moment later, his eyes glowed.

"Not bad, Miss Rose. But Oscar doesn't have the years of training that you do. Or I do," Ozpin said.

"Oh, ha, well, maybe we should uh... take a break," Ruby said, backing up as he advanced on her.

Ozpin closed the small distance between them, striking her multiple times in the face before sending her flying several feet backwards.

"Ouch," Nora muttered.

"The next time you want to throw a left cross, remember to push off with the appropriate foot. And as always, do be aware of any openings," Ozpin said. With that, he relinquished control, sending Oscar falling to the ground, panting heavily.

"Gooooot it," Ruby said, sounding dizzy.

Her teammates hurried to her face.

Yang leaned down.

"Bad news, Rubes, you're face is just as ugly as always," she said.

Ruby scoffed, shoving her sister away as Blake and Weiss pulled her to her feet.

"I happen to think her face is _very_ pretty," Blake said.

Ruby beamed at her, and Yang let out a disgusted sound.

"Gross," Yang complained.

Pyrrha walked up to Oscar, watching him with a concerned expression.

"Hey. Are you okay?" she asked, holding out a hand to help him to his feet.

"How is this so exhausting?" he asked, panting.

"Your body isn't used to this kind of training, not to mention generating a defensive Aura on your own. It takes intense concentration at first, but in time it will become second nature, allowing you to deflect attacks and gradually heal your wounds. After that, you can begin focusing on your semblance, whatever that may be," she said.

"Semblance?" Oscar questioned.

"You know! Like your very own superpower! Everybody's got one. It's just a matter of finding it and mastering it. Ruby moves super fast, Electricity makes me stronger, Ren can mask emotions, and Jaune... can, uh, um. Hmm," Nora trailed off.

"I can't do anyth-" Jaune was cut off by Pyrrha.

"Jaune's like you. He hasn't found his Semblance yet, but we all know he will. And you will, too. We all just have to try and help each other get stronger," Pyrrha said.

Ilia watched her with a fond look on her face while Jaune glanced at Ren and Nora.

"Cool," Oscar said.

"A common philosophy is that a warrior's Semblance is a part of who they are. Some say your personality and character can define your Semblance while some claim that it is the other way around. Of course, there are still many who don't see a connection at all," Ren said.

"It's hard to know when you _know_ sometimes. Ren's Semblance from intense stress," Nora said, smiling at him.

"I was training one day, and my semblance appeared randomly," Pyrrha said.

"What about you?" Oscar asked Nora.

"Oh. Struck by lightning. Didn't die. Craaaazy Thursday," Nora said, grinning. Ren and Jaune looked at her with the same expression.

"I just don't understand what's wrong with me. I train. I meditate," Jaune sighed, and Nora set a hand on his shoulder consolingly.

Oscar's eyes glowed momentarily, and his body language changed drastically as he stared at Jaune.

"Don't worry, Mr. Arc. Your journey is far from over. And the same might be said for all of you. Unlocking your Semblance isn't the end. It can still grow and evolve. Providing you're willing to put in the work, who knows what could happen."

Jaune smiled as Nora agreed enthusiastically.

Ozpin turned to face Pyrrha.

"Ms. Nikos, I believe it would be best if you and Ms. Polendina trained together to harness the full potential of the Maiden powers you've received," he said.

Pyrrha turned to Penny, who was talking excitedly with Ruby at the moment.

"Of course, Sir," she said, turning to face Penny and heading toward her.

"Mr. Arc, I think it would be best if you trained with your other teammates, see if you can unlock your semblance."

Jaune gave him a strained smile as he nodded.

"Of course."

Ilia, Ren, and Nora gave him varying looks of consolation.

-

Ruby groaned, running a hand through her hair in frustration.

"I'm really bad with hand to hand," she complained.

"That's alright, Rubes, I can help with that!" Yang said, clicking her gauntlet into place.

Ruby's eyes widened.

"Uh, maybe I should practice with someone else," she said nervously.

She glanced at Blake, but the small smirk on the faunus' face made her decide not to fight her either. Blake and Yang were definitely far better at this kind of fighting than her. She considered team JNIPR, but the only one of them she could realistically beat was Jaune, and he was distracted by the rest of his team. Penny would probably go easy on her if she asked, but she was busy fighting with Pyrrha to practice...

That left the two Schnee sisters, and she grimaced.

She finally decided on Weiss, but regretted it later, even if it was her only option.

-

Yang collapsed on the couch, letting out a sigh of relief, now that she had finished her training for the day.

Qrow sat beside her, and Yang glanced at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, Uncle Qrow, what's up?"

"Oz wanted me to talk to you about the Spring Maiden."

Yang glanced around, and noticed that everyone else was suspiciously missing from the room.

"Why me specifically?" she asked, sitting up slightly.

"Because of where she is."

"And where is she?"

"Last we heard? With Raven and her band of thieves."

Yang's heart stopped.

"What?"

"Last we heard, the Spring Maiden ran off to join Raven."

Yang sat silently for a moment before narrowing her eyes.

"And why did Oz want to tell me this?" she asked. She knew he had a track record for keeping secrets, and she knew that he never revealed one without a reason.

"Cause we want you to go talk to her, kid," Qrow said, taking a drink from his flask.

"Why me? Why not you?"

"Cause she hates my guts, kid, and she still checks up on you."

"She does?" Yang asked, shocked.

"Yeah. Oz and I were hoping you'd track her down before Salem had the chance."

"So you're using me against my mother."

"Look, kid, we're in a battle against the most evil thing in all of Remnant. We need to use every weapon we've got. You don't have to, but it can't hurt to try, right?" he asked, taking another drink.

The two sat in silence for a minute before Yang forced herself to break it.

"I'll think about it."

"Take your time, kid, but not too much. You need to decide tomorrow."

Yang ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"Okay," she said.

She walked out of the room, head spinning.

Yang was met by her team, who were sitting on a bed in the side room. They'd wrestled it away from Nora, Ren, and Jaune, but only the first of the three had really put up a fight. Neo had almost stolen it when the six of them were distracted with one another, but Ciel had dragged her away, apologizing for her girlfriend to the two teams.

Blake looked up, eyes turning worried.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Qrow and Oz want me to talk to Raven."

"What?! Why?!" Ruby cried. Weiss echoed her outrage a moment later.

"Apparently she knows where the Spring Maiden is."

"Are you going?" Blake asked, putting her hand on Yang's back gently.

"I don't know yet," Yang admitted, letting her head drop into her hands.

"Whatever you decide, we'll support you," Blake said.

"Of course we will," Weiss responded, voice slightly snappish, though Yang knew that she meant well.

"If you want, we can come with!" Ruby said, her eyes worried.

"Ruby, this might be something she needs to do alone," Blake said quietly, trying to calm the younger sister down. Weiss agreed quickly.

"Weiss, you once said that when you love someone, their battles become yours, and yours become theirs. How is this any different?" Ruby asked.

Yang ignored the three of them for a moment, her head spinning.

"Maybe we should talk about something else," Blake said, seeming Yang's overwhelmed expression.

"Yeah, we can finish this in the morning," Weiss offered.

Ruby didn't seem to like the idea, but she didn't voice her frustration and fell against the bed, laying at the side. Blake fell beside her, pulling Yang down with her. Weiss curled up beside Yang, holding her gently around the waist.

Yang let herself be lulled to sleep by the two girls beside her, eyes fluttering shut. Even as she thought of having to face Raven, her worries were soothed by the three girls in bed with her.

She'd made up her mind. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she stirred, sitting up.

Weiss groaned and tried to pull her back down, but Blake let her go, pulling herself up as well and dragging Ruby up with her.

"What's going on?" Weiss asked, her voice muffled by sleep.

"I'm going," she said.

Yang took a deep breath, trying to keep herself from doubting her teammates and their commitment.

"And, if you're willing, I'd like for you to come with me," Yang muttered.

"Of course we'll come with you," Blake said.

"Yeah!" Ruby cried, seeming to have finally woken up.

"Yang, I love you, you mean the world to me, and of course I'll come with you, but if you wake me up again tonight, I'm leaving you," Weiss said, grabbing Yang around the shoulders and pulling her back down, drawing the covers over the four of them.

Yang laughed and let out a breath of relief.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"You don't have to thank us. Just shut up and let me get my beauty sleep," Weiss muttered.

"You don't need that," three voices said.

"Oh, dust, you're all so cheesy. Why do I love you," Weiss groaned, already almost asleep.

Yang joined the former heiress, her last thought of her teammates and a small smile on her face.


	7. Talks

"I hate to be that person, but how are we getting there?" Weiss asked. Team RWBY was still sitting on the bed they'd used the night before, discussing Yang's decision.

There was a moment of silence.

"We could always use one of the airships," Ruby said, shrugging.

"Faster than what I was thinking," Yang muttered.

"Who are we going to get to fly us."

"No, never mind! Maybe we can just walk!" Ruby said quickly.

"We don't have enough time for that, Rubes," Yang said.

Ruby groaned.

That was how all four of them ended up on an airship with an insane old woman flying them.

Ruby attempted to sit in the back of the airship with her teammates, but she was halted by a commanding voice from the front.

"Ruby, sit up here with me."

The team leader flinched, glancing back at her teammates with a pleading look. Weiss rolled her eyes and shooed her while Blake gave her an apologetic smile, but offered no help.

Ruby sighed before trudging to the front of the airship, sitting in the copilot's seat.

"How about we discuss those eyes of yours?" she said, slipping a USB into the ship and starting it up.

Ruby grinned excitedly.

"Oh! Yes, ma'am, I'd be honored!"

"Let's start with what you do know. Tell me."

"Uh... Silver-Eyed people are supposed to be legendary warriors. Or something. And at the Fall of Beacon, I turned a giant Wyvern into stone."

Maria shook her head.

"Oh, boy."

"Look, if I already knew everything I wouldn't be asking for help!" Ruby said, crossing her arms.

"It's not your fault. I had my father to teach me, and even he didn't have all the answers. But what he told me makes sense, given what I've seen."

"Was he a Huntsmen too?" Ruby asked.

"It wasn't really an official title back in his day. I only knew him as an old soldier and an excellent teacher. I never attended one of those fancy academies of yours, but I scored higher on the license exam than any other Huntsman or Huntress that day."

"You must've been proud," Ruby said, smiling gently.

"Heh, he would've scolded me for showing off. He'd never been able to find much information about our abilities. Just legends of warriors whose eyes shone like mirrors, reflecting the light of the world onto darkness. He found so little, in fact, that it made him cautious. How could such powerful bloodlines be so rare? Unless something was actively seeking to destroy them."

"Salem...," Ruby said quietly.

"I tried to keep my powers a secret, but as you know, it wasn't enough. I owe my life to my training, and my Semblance. At the end of the day, those are still your most powerful tools."

"What is your Semblance?"

""Preflexes"! A silly name I came up with. Hard to explain, but I can sense everything better than most and react to attacks almost before they happen. Combine that with my training and secret ability to turn Grimm to stone, or blind them, or vaporize them."

"So, how do I laser beam monsters with my eyeballs?" Ruby asked excitedly.

Maria slapped her with her cane.

"First, you stop thinking like that! I want you to think of all the times you've triggered your powers. What did those moments have in common?"

"I... was scared, and stressed. Is it emotional? Like unlocking a Semblance?" Ruby asked.

"It's emotional but more focused than that. Think, what is it you wanted?" Maria prompted.

Ruby clenched her fist.

"I wanted to protect the people I care about."

"Precisely! The light will only work in the presence of Grimm. Meaning the only practice you'll get will be a trial by fire. But, what you can do is focus on creating a state of mind that you can tap into when you need it. Don't think about your light as a means of destroying evil, but as a way to protect the people of Remnant," Maria said.

"But, that can't be right," Ruby said, frowning.

"Hm?" Maria prompted.

"You said the light only reacts to Grimm, but... I used it during our battle at Atlas. It reacted to Emerald," Ruby said.

"Interesting... Perhaps there was something that you just weren't seeing?" Maria asked.

Ruby was about to respond, but she was stopped by the sound of shushing scrambling footsteps.

"It seems your friends were listening in," Maria said.

Ruby turned, seeing the slightest flash of movement behind them. She recognized who it was by the color.

"Weiss?"

There was a guilty look on Weiss' face as she peeked around the door frame.

"Yes, Ruby?" she asked, trying to seem as if she hadn't been listening in.

"How much did you hear?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" Weiss said, but her face gave her away.

Blake leaned over, putting her head on Weiss' shoulder as she did so.

"All of it," the faunus said, smirking just slightly at Weiss' glare.

Yang appeared as well, putting her head on top of Blake's back, looping her arm around the two of them.

"It's not important how much we heard," Weiss said, waving her hand in the air, "I think I figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Ruby asked, frowning in confusion.

“How you hurt Emerald! It makes so much sense!”

“It does?” Ruby asked.

“Yes! Didn’t you see her arms?!”

Ruby’s blank stare made Weiss sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“They were Grimm arms!”

“They were?!”

“Yes! Dust, Ruby, do you even pay attention to your enemies when you fight them?!”

Ruby laughed awkwardly.

“I still don’t get it,” she said.

Weiss groaned

“If your... eyes work on Grimm, and she has Grimm arms, then you should be able to effect her with your eyes!” Weiss cried.

Ruby’s eyes slowly widened, and she grinned.

Using her semblance, she raced forward, grabbing the former heiress in a tight hug.

“Weiss, you’re a genius!”

Weiss blushed.

“Not really, it’s just simple logic.”

Ruby shook her head, pulling Weiss closer and connecting their lips.

Maria looked away.

“Take that into the back,” she grumbled.

Blake guided the two girls away, giving the pilot a quiet apology.

Ruby pulled back, barely noticing she’s been shepherded into the back of the airship.

Ruby giggled and Weiss tried to look serious.

“It’s been too long since I had the chance to do that,” Ruby said.

“Keep it down back there and I’ll let you keep it up. We’ve got about an hour until landing!” Marks screamed from the front.


	8. Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have, once again, come up with a rare pair, surprise ship. *loud booing* No need to thank me!

Jaune groaned, turning away from Nora and Ren, his eyes landing on Pyrrha. He had been hoping to get help from Weiss, but he supposed that she would be the next best thing.

"Hey, Pyrrha, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.

Ilia glanced between them before shrugging, giving her girlfriend a quick smile before jogging over to join Ren and Nora. She asked to join in on the sparring session, and Nora grinned like a lunatic. Ilia regretted it almost instantly, having to throw herself to the side to avoid a hammer that had almost struck her in the face.

"Hello, Jaune! What was it you wanted to speak to me about?" she asked kindly.

Jaune glanced over, finding that their teammates were thoroughly distracted, and let out a sigh of relief.

"I just wanted to ask you about how you helped Weiss."

"How I helped Weiss with what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Jaune looked embarrassed, glancing away from her and watching their teammates.

"Back before her and the rest of her team got together," he clarified.

"You mean when she was worried about her feelings for three people being wrong?"

"Yeah, that," Jaune said.

"I told her to confess her feelings when she had the opportunity."

Jaune laughed awkwardly, running a hand through his newly cut hair.

"Did she?"

"Yes, though she wasn't the first of her team to."

"What did she do until then?" Jaune asked.

"Mostly complain."

Jaune let out a sigh of frustration.

"Good. That's great."

"Why do you ask, Jaune?"

"Uh, no reason," he said.

"You're a horrible liar, Jaune."

He sighed.

"I know, I know," he said.

"What's bothering you?"

"I think I might have the same problem Weiss had."

"You have feelings for Ruby, Yang, and Blake?"

"What?! No!" he cried, flushing in embarrassment.

"Then you have feelings for multiple people?"

"Uh, maybe."

"If I may ask, who are they?"

"It, uh... it doesn't matter."

"I can't exactly help you if I'm not sure what I'm helping you with, Jaune."

He glanced around and made sure that everyone was still practicing. Penny was waiting for Pyrrha to rejoin her, using the opportunity to check on Winter and make sure she was healing properly from her injuries. Their teammates were in a three way spar, which Ilia was doing surprisingly well at. Neo was taunting Ciel as they had their own practice fight, which just caused Ciel to attack her with greater ferocity.

"It's... Nora and Ren, alright?" he said quickly.

Pyrrha watched him for a moment, finding that Jaune's eyes had wandered to their teammates. Nora swung her hammer at Ilia's face, and the faunus had to drop to the ground to avoid it. Nora pouted, swinging again with more force, almost striking Ren in the chest. Ren avoided it with a back flip, which he obviously landed perfectly, and moved one of his guns from its holster, pointing and shooting at Ilia.

"I see," Pyrrha said calmly, though she eyed Jaune almost sympathetically.

"Yeah, I'm screwed, I know," he muttered.

"Not... necessarily."

"Pyrrha, if you looked up the definition of soulmates in the dictionary, you'd find a picture of them."

"People can have multiple soulmates," Pyrrha told him.

He threw up his hands.

"If you looked up the word third wheel, you'd see a picture of me. You'd see a picture of my kids, and my children's kids, but I'm never going to have them, because I'm the ultimate third wheel!" he said, keeping his voice down, but barely.

Pyrrha gave him a consoling smile.

"That's not true," she said, "You're a wonderful person, and I'm sure that there's many girls, and boy, that would count themselves lucky to date you."

"Thanks, Pyrrha," he said, sighing to himself.

She put a hand on his shoulder.

"You have nothing to worry about, Jaune."

"Yes, I do, Pyrrha. Thanks for saying otherwise, but I know it's not true. Just... don't tell either of them what I said."

"Of course I won't, Jaune. But please remember, Weiss didn't think she had a chance either, but now she's in a very happy relationship with all three of her teammates. You're no different than she was."

"Except for the fact that Nora and Ren are in a perfect relationship and in love with each other. They don't need some third person coming in and ruining it all," Jaune said.

Pyrrha was about to speak, but was interrupted by a loud voice.

"Ms. Nikos, Mr. Arc, is something wrong?" Ozpin's voice said. It was still weird to hear that familiar voice coming from Oscar's body.

"No! No! Nothing's wrong, Sir! Just taking a second to talk!" Jaune said, flushing.

Pyrrha gave their former headmaster a kind smile.

"I apologize for the interruption. I'm sure I distracted Jaune," she said.

Jaune tried to stop himself from snorting.

Ozpin stared at her with a slight smile.

"I'm sure. Please return to practice, we don't have much time before Salem sends someone to retrieve the relic."

He considered for a moment.

"Jaune, would you please help Oscar practice?"

Jaune held in a sigh.

How could he ever expect Ren and Nora to return his feelings when he was pathetic? He hadn't even unlocked his semblance yet!

He was the perfect sparring partner for a kid that hadn't fought before a day in his life.

He sighed, hanging his head as he jogged toward Oscar, giving the young boy a small smile as he steadied himself after Ozpin giving him back his body.

He didn't notice that two eyes followed his form as he ran across the yard.

-

Nora saw Ilia panting. The faunus had done well, somehow being able to keep from getting him by her hammer too many times, which was saying something. Even Ren had been hit in the gut more than a few times.

"Pyrrha, your teammates are insane," Ilia said.

"Hey, we're your teammates too, now!" Nora said happily, "That means you're stuck with us!"

Ilia smiled at her for a moment and Nora turned to face the rest of their teams.

She gave Ren a flirtatious smile and a wink, but her gaze was drawn to Jaune.

Recently, she had started to realize something.

She and Ren were polar opposites. Well, she'd always known that, but that wasn't exactly the point. The point was that she was in love with Ren, despite their differences, or maybe even because of them. But there were... a lot of differences, and they'd always worked through them. But as of late, she'd seemed to notice that they did it better when Jaune was there. He wasn't quite like either of them, but he was somehow in an area between the two of them, which made him good for mediating their differences. And not just that, but he was a very nice guy, and, in the darkest part of her mind, she had to admit that she thought he was quite cute.

She and Ren would be impossibly happy together, Nora was sure of that, and could live a great life together. Nora had imagined that life with him enough times to know she'd be happy.

But recently, ever since she'd gotten to know Jaune better and especially since Atlas, she'd realized... that as happy as she'd be with Ren...

Maybe there was a way she could be... more happy if Jaune were there too.

The idea made her feel guilty beyond belief. That is, until she saw Ren following Jaune with his eyes.


	9. Into the Bandit's Den

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't make myself write this without doing the Freezerburn hug. Sue me.

Yang groaned in frustration. She knew that Maria couldn't just very well land and wait for the four of them, especially considering they were now, technically, criminals, and the airship was being searched for.

They were forced to jump from the airship, Maria halting them in the middle of a long overdue make-out session. It wasn't exactly their fault they had gotten so distracted. After all, they hadn't had the chance to do normal girlfriend stuff since they'd gone to the ball in Atlas. They'd been distracted by the constant threat of death and having to work with the Ace-Ops.

Blake had had Ruby in her lap, the young team leader wrapping her legs around the faunus to make it easier for her to access her lips. She was running one hand over Blake's cat ears, enjoying the familiar rumbling sound it made as her girlfriend purred. Weiss was being pushed back against Blake and Ruby's sides by Yang, who was holding the former heiress tightly around the waist to make it easier to kiss her. Blake had one hand on Weiss' stomach, having to reach under Yang's arm, to steady the former heiress.

When Maria had walked in on them, she'd said something about somehow having her eyes damaged by the image, even though she hadn't had her eyes in decades.

She'd practically thrown the four girls out of the airship after that showcase, saying something to Ruby about never making her have to see that again in her life.

Ruby had blushed and said quiet, quick apologies to her new mentor.

The four of them were now at a small restaurant, hoping to get a sense of where they were. Weiss had purchased a map, though notably not with her father's money, and was muttering to herself about Maria dropping them off prematurely.

"Maybe it's because we were making out in the back of the airship," Yang pointed out.

Weiss vaguely threatened her with a plastic knife she'd found on the counter, though she didn't look up from the map.

"Don't remind me, that was embarrassing."

"Come on, that's not the first time it happened. Remember team JNIPR on the train?" Ruby said.

"Not helping her, Sweetie," Blake pointed out, smirking.

"I hate you three," Weiss muttered, though she had a small smirk on her lips.

The bartender walked up to them, eyeing Ruby and Weiss.

"What can I get ya?" he asked.

"A soda please," Yang said, setting a few coins on the table. She glanced at her teammates. "Make that three sodas, a milk, and as many cookies you have in stock," Yang ammended, grabbing a bit more money. Blake chipped in quickly, making Yang grin at her.

They hadn't gotten a lot from working with the Ace-Ops, but they'd gotten enough to sustain themselves for a few weeks if they had to.

The bartender gave them a small smile and nodded, disappearing into the back.

"Are you telling me you're too young to drink? You look like a regular Huntress. And a beauty at that," a man down the counter said.

Yang glanced at him.

"Her?" she asked, gesturing at Blake. She knew that neither Weiss and Ruby couldn't be the one he was talking about, because they both still looked fairly young.

"And humble too, huh?" he asked, smirking.

"Let me buy you a drink," he continued.

"I'm good. Thanks, pal."

"Seriously. Not too bulky. Not too lean. You're...," he approached her.

"Just right. Yup. Like I said, I'm good."

He put his hand on the counter, reaching out with the other one.

"And your hair..."

Yang's eyes flashed red and she spun, preparing to attack him, but was, literally, late to the punch.

Weiss hadn't looked up from the map, but her rapier was held against his stomach.

"I suggest you stop right there," the former heiress said, her tone almost as sharp as her weapon.

Weiss hadn't been the only one to move, and Blake now had her own weapon drawn, though she was holding it against his neck.

"I second that," she said, her voice holding the slightest hint of a growl.

"I'd listen to them. They're really good fighters," ruby said, drumming her hands on the bar counter and looking excitedly for the bartender to return with her cookies.

Yang glanced at her girlfriends lovingly.

"You didn't have to do that," she said, "I could have handled him."

"Of course we didn't have to," Weiss said, still glaring at the map in her hands.

Yang gave Weiss a kiss on the cheek before rearing her arm back and bringing it forward with force, her gauntlet clicking into place, and connecting her hand with the sleazy man's face. He was sent flying back several meters, careening out of the door and slamming against the ground outside.

The bartender returned after a moment, glancing outside at the shady man they had just removed.

He set down the food and sodas.

"This one's on the house. He's been driving me crazy."

"Thank you!" Ruby said, launching herself toward the cookies and starting to devour them.

"You're going to choke, Ruby," Weiss said sufferingly.

Ruby gave her a grin, crumbs falling off of her mouth.

"Sorry!" she said, though it was a chore to decipher what she had said considering there were still the gobbled remains of two separate cookies in her mouth.

"So, what brings you around these parts?" the bartender asked.

"We're, uh, we're looking for someone," she said.

"Not too many people come out here. Too far from the Kingdoms. Only person worth notin' around here is... well, Ra-"

Yang cut him off.

"Raven Branwen," she finished for him, putting a hand on Weiss' shoulder to guide her out of her seat as she continued to glare at the map, "Thanks again."

"N-now, missy! You don't want to go messin' with bandits! They're a world of trouble!" the bartender said.

"So I hear," Yang said, glancing behind her to make sure Ruby was following. She needn't have worried, because Blake was helping the team leader carry the large pile of cookies out of the bar.

Yang walked outside, and saw the same man as before picking himself off the ground. He spit out a tooth, and Yang had a small moment of grim satisfaction that her punch had left him with a permanent scar.

"Hey, girlie!" he called.

"Seriously? This isn't okay?" she asked, preparing herself for another attack on the man.

"I heard you're... looking for someone. Heh," he said.

Yang glanced at her teammates, raising an eyebrow and looking at them each in turn. Weiss met her gaze for a moment before matching her expression with a small smirk. That was a yes from her. Blake shrugged. Another yes. Ruby nodded enthusiastically. That was certainly a yes.

"You think you can take us to her?"

He spit out a bit of blood, which made Weiss look at him in disgust.

"I'm sure I can, girlie."

"Then show us."

-

The five of them walked for a fair ways, the four girls following the shady man.

"I don't trust him," Weiss muttered.

"Of course you don't trust him, he knows my mother, of course he's a bad guy," Yang whispered, "We just need to get him to show us where Raven is."

Weiss mumbled something about unnecessary risk, stepping closer to the other three members of her team and raising her weapon, as if expecting an attack and wanting to protect them.

"How much further, pal?" Yang called.

"This should just about do it," the man said, coming to a stop suddenly.

"You wait here. I'll go up ahead and make sure the coast is clear," he said.

Yang watched the man scramble into the bushes. She shook her head, wondering just how stupid he thought their team was.

The sound of gunfire rang through the air, and Yang raised her gauntlet in front of Weiss, deflecting the bullet easily.

Several forms appeared from the bushes, all holding up weapons.

" I can't believe you were dumb enough to let me lead you here," the man from earlier said, smug.

"Is this everyone?" Yang asked, clearly unconcerned.

"Yes, little lady. This is it. Well, unless you count the whole rest of the camp back that way," the man gestured over his shoulder as he spoke.

"That way?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.

The man grunted, looking at his friends for a moment before answering.

"Yes. That way," he said finally.

"Good to know. Thanks," Yang said.

"Now to pay me back for this tooth," he said, punching his palm with his fist.

Yang clicked her gauntlet into place, grinning at her teammates as they drew their weapons as well.

"You three got the jump on me last time, sweetheart. But you really ought to think twice about fighting all-"

Ruby whipped her scythe out from behind her back, waving it around dramatically and letting it slam against the ground, displacing the dirt and gravel underneath her. She always had to be so over the top with Crescent Rose.

"Alright... Get her!" the man cried.

The four of them made impossibly quick work of the bandits, Weiss kicking the man from earlier in the face at the end.

He groaned, forcing himself into a sitting position. Blake slammed her boot against his back, and he fell again.

"Who are you? It doesn't even matter. When Raven finds out what you did, you're dead!" he said, somehow able to speak even as Blake stomped down on his back.

"Possibly. But I doubt it. I am her daughter, after all," Yang said, crossing her arms and glancing at her teammates, who were all smirking just slightly.

" _I'm_ dead," he muttered.

"Hopefully," Weiss muttered.

Yang walked into the forest, toward the direction that he had pointed to earlier, and the other three members of her team followed her.

-

The four girls walked into the camp. They're being escorted by some of the bandits they had bruised earlier, though that seemed rather ironic. What would they be able to do? The four of them had already proven that any one of them could beat up all of these guards.

A familiar from exited a tent, turning to face Yang and her team. She had on a bone white mask, which reminded Blake unsettlingly of the White Fang masks.

"Mom," Yang said, voice impressively level.

The woman took off her mask, revealing dark crimson eyes that stared at Yang. She smiled at her, and began to speak.

"Yang. So, after all this time you finally decided to visit me."

Weiss glared at the woman, barely keeping herself from yelling at Raven already. The four had agreed to let Yang do the talking, though that was difficult for the former heiress, even though she knew it was for the best.

"You _know_ that I searched for you. I spent years looking for you."

"And you've found me. You were patient, determined, and strong enough to make your dream a reality. Well done, Yang. But did you have to be so rough with my men?"

"I didn't want a fight. They started it."

"Well, you certainly finished it," Raven said.

There was a moment of silence, and Weiss slipped her hand into Yang's own tentatively. She found that the blond's hand had been shaking just slightly, and Yang gripped Weiss' hand tightly.

"Right. I'm sure this is all very overwhelming. But I must admit that you've proven yourself. So any questions you have I'll be happy to answer. You can stay with us tonight. I'll even have the cooks whip up something for you."

"That's _not_ why I am here," Yang said lowly.

"What was that?" Raven asked.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here to check on the Spring Maiden for Ozpin. I need you to tell me where she is."

"And why would I do that?" Raven asked, crossing her arms.

"Because we're family," Yang said.

"Family. Only coming around when they need something," Raven muttered to herself, but Blake's ears twitched as she heard it.

"I have to say, I'm disappointed. After all, you found me, didn't you? Why not take that drive and use it to find the Spring Maiden yourself?" Raven asked, speaking at a normal volume once again.

"Because you're going to save me time. Looking for her could take ages," Yang said.

"You know, it takes real strength to march in here and demand such a favor of me. I've got to say, I'm impressed," Raven said.

"What does that mean?" Yang asked, clearly not impressed.

"You don't want to get mixed up in all of that, Yang. Ozpin is not the man you think he is. And Qrow is a fool for trusting him. I would know, I trusted him once, too."

"I don't care what you think," Yang said, tightening her hand on Wiess' own.

"Your choice is your own. All I'm suggesting is that instead of getting wrapped up in something too big for you, for any of us, that maybe you take a moment to wonder if you're already where you belong."

"Save your breath. You can spout off whatever you want, but nothing is going to keep me from the Spring Maiden," Yang said.

"Well, aren't you stubborn."

"I get it from my mom," Yang said.

"Well, if that's how you feel, then it sounds like we're done here. Take her away," Raven said.

"Did you not hear me?" Yang snapped, making Raven glance over her shoulder, "I said take me to the Spring Maiden, damn it!" she yelled, eyes blazing red.

"That's enough! You watch your mouth in front of our leader!" a bandit snapped.

"Make me!" Yang yelled, pulling her hand from Weiss' own.

Each of the teammates had drawn their weapons, Yang clicking her gauntlets into place threateningly.

Yang threw a punch at the closest bandit while Blake stood at her back, throwing her own weapon at another one.

Ruby and Weiss stood back to back as well, preparing their attacks. Ruby switched Crescent Rose into its rifle form while Weiss summoned a glyph under the closest bandit.

A lightning bolt struck, and a loud voice echoed through the area.

" _Enough_!" the woman beside Raven snapped.

"Thank you," Raven said to the woman, before turning to the rest of the people around her.

"If you people don't keep it together this place will be crawling with Grimm," she snapped.

"You four. In my tent. Now," Raven said, spinning on her heel and marching inside.

"Why?" Yang asked, still holding her gauntlets at the ready.

"If you're really going after the Maiden, then you need to know the truth."

Yang turned to her team.

"Sorry about that," she said.

Weiss stepped closer, eyes worried.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Yang seemed surprise.

"Uh, yeah. I'm alright."

"I know how much it sucks to face your parent like this," she said.

Weiss seemed worried for a moment before she threw herself into a hug with Yang, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's neck. Yang was shocked for a second before placing one hand on Weiss' head to pull her closer, putting the other on her waist to steady her.

When she pulled back slightly, Weiss looked up at her with the kindest expression, and Yang was, once again (for perhaps the hundredth time today), reminded by she had fallen for Weiss.

Blake put a hand on Yang's shoulder, looking into her eyes with a loving gaze. When Weiss reached out to grab her, Blake put her head against Yang's neck, tickling her hair with her breath. That reminded her why she'd fallen for Blake.

When they separated, Ruby gave her sister a quick smile, glancing at their girlfriends and giving them an appreciative look.

The bandits around them seemed confused, but Yang didn't care in the slightest as she headed into the tent.


	10. Meanwhile...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did I leave you hanging on team RWBY? Perhaps. Do I feel guilty? *hysterical laughter* You all know the answer to that question.

Jaune dropped against the couch, throwing an arm over his eyes. Ren and Nora were outside together talking about something, which gave him a break from their constant presence. He supposed that was something that happened with teams, but the two of them seeme dot be hanging out with him more lately. At least Nora wanted to, Jaune could never tell with Ren. Nora and Ren were complete opposites, which made him not just surprised that they were both together, but that he liked them both. Ren was quiet and calculating, only talking when necessary, and hardly ever showed his emotions. But Nora was always excited and talkative. Jaune liked to think of himself as a middle ground between them, nowhere near as sequestered as Ren, but not as much of a social butterfly as Nora, for sure.

Jaune saw other people walking around the room from the corner of his eye, but ignored them until a figure sat down beside him, grazing against his leg as they got comfortable. He moved his arm slightly and looked up at his new companion.

"Hello, Jaune."

"Hey, Pyrrha," he said, groaning.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"No."

Silence.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Pyrrha asked.

"No."

Pyrrha patted him on the leg.

"I'll have Ilia plan your funeral then, I suppose."

"Did you just make a sarcastic joke?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha smiled just slightly.

"Maybe."

"That girlfriend of yours has changed you, Nikos," Jaune said.

"Maybe."

Jaune rolled his eyes at her, and was about to speak, but loud yelling from the other room cut him off.

When it was quieter, he glanced at his partner.

"Are you gonna go check on that?"

"I don't suppose they'd appreciate that," Pyrrha said.

Maybe she was right, but Jaune didn't particularly care. He just wanted to have a while to wallow him his self pity. Why couldn't he just pick one person that was remotely in his league?

-

"How are your wounds, Girlfriend Winter?" Penny asked.

"They're getting better. Thank you, Penny," Winter said.

It was true. Her black eye was gone, and the scratch on her arm would certainly leave a scar, but it was closed up now. Mostly she was just still sore, and she took advantage of her girlfriend's heating pad hands, putting them on her sore arms and ribs.

Penny was more than happy to help, and was making sure that Winter wouldn't push herself to far in training, barely letting the other girl fight at all.

Winter would complain, but after all this time... it felt good to have someone worrying for her for once.

-

Ciel felt fingers on her waist as Neo had them run across the base of her stomach with a wriggly, playful motion.

Ciel forced back a laugh and slapped at her girlfriend's hands.

"Don't do that."

 _'Why not, Gorgeous?'_ Neo signed, smirking suddenly.

That gave Ciel a concerned feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I said not to. Shouldn't that be enough to stop you?"

Neo gave her a flat look.

_'Gorgeous, you do realize that I'm a criminal, right? Breaking the rules and going directly against what I've been told is literally what I've done my entire life.'_

Ciel sighed sufferingly, trying not to laugh.

 _'So why do you want me to stop?'_ she asked.

Ciel backed up, and Neo moved closer to her, smirking.

_'You couldn't be ticklish now, could you?'_

"Of course not," Ciel denied instantly.

Neo's hand darted forward, fingers moved back and forth against Ciel's waist quickly.

Ciel let out an uncharacteristically high pitched laugh, moving away.

"Stop it!" she said between giggles.

Neo couldn't sign to her, but from her expression, Ciel could interpret.

_'Why would I stop, Gorgeous, when watching you laugh is so adorable?'_

Ciel wondered if she should be concerned that she knew what Neo was thinking based on her expression. Perhaps it was because her girlfriend was mute, or perhaps Ciel had never studied someone the way she had Neo. She'd studied battle strategy and different school subjects, which helped her excel at Atlas Academy. But she'd never had any semblance of people skills, never dedicating any real thought to what could be going on in someone else's head. But with Neo, she'd actually considered and studied the other girl, attempting to know everything she could about her. Once again, that could be because the was a criminal or a mute, but Ciel knew it was because Neo was her girlfriend, and she loved her. She just wanted to know everything about her.

All of that was a long winded explanation of why she knew that Neo wasn't going to let up.

Ciel let out another uncharacteristic squeal, which was also very high pitched, and tried to keep Neo at an arms length away from her. It didn't work too well, and the criminal was able to get the best of her, attacking relentlessly and making Ciel laugh until she couldn't breath, letting out a loud shriek of shock when Neo finally found her most ticklish spot: under her arms.

Neo laughed silently, but that didn't stop it from being maniacal in nature.

Ciel laughed and playfully pushed her girlfriend away. It didn't work well, and Neo stopped a minute later, leaving Ciel breathless from laughter.

"You really are a criminal," Ciel said, panting.

_'That's exactly what I told you, Gorgeous.'_

"You've never told me anything, Neo. You're mute, remember?"

_'That was criminally mean.'_

Ciel slapped her arm.

-

Ren stared at Nora, watching her pace back and forth in front of him with a look that would have made most people think he was disinterested. Truly, he was concerned, wondering what could be going on in that head of hers.

"Nora? What's wrong?" he asked, voice monotone, as always.

Nora could have worded her next sentence better, of that she was certain, but she was too nervous to do so originally.

"I've seen how you look at Jaune."

Ren's eyes widened almost unnoticeably.

"I'm... not sure what you're talking about, Nora," he said, frowning just slightly.

Nora cursed internally.

"I mean... I look at him that way too!" she took a deep breath, putting her hands together to help calm her racing thoughts as she considered how to word her next sentence. She wanted to do it better than she had last time, that was for sure.

"I like Jaune. And so do you!" she tried, speaking quickly.

"Yes, that's typically what happens when you're friends with someone," Ren said, still not understanding what his girlfriend was getting at.

"No, I mean, in a romantic way."

Ren stared at her.

She didn't elaborate, knowing that her trying to say more would just make him take longer to go through everything that had been said, to weigh what was happening in his mind.

"You mean like team RWBY, I assume?" he asked.

Nora nodded excitedly. She was sure that she had feelings for Jaune now. His excitable, almost puppy-like smile. His determination to try harder every time he fails instead of giving up. His growing leadership, which he was definitely getting better at, surprisingly.

Ren considered his feelings for a moment. He wasn't good at that, that was undoubtable, but he did try when it came to Nora.

He knew his feelings for her. He was in love with her, as he'd told her once and she had excitedly said in return. He went in what he assumed was the order of importance.

First, was he jealous that Nora had feelings for another man? There was a slight frustration and anger in his gut, but not as much as he would have assumed. He supposed that he would be acceptable. He could live with her having feelings for Jaune as well, and perhaps in the future pursuing a relationship with both their team leader and himself.

Second, did he have feelings for Jaune as well? Ren considered. Nora seemed to think he did, but that would surprise him. He'd never had feelings, nor attraction toward, another man. But, as he carefully analyzed the emotions within his chest, which he typically tried to avoid doing. Ren knew how he felt with Nora. He knew the way his heart felt lighter with her around, the way he felt at peace when her head was on his chest, the fond smile he felt himself fighting off whenever Nora got especially excitable. Did he feel these sort of things around Jaune? He considered for a long moment. He felt the loosening of his chest when Jaune smiled at him. He felt that unnatural sensation of peace whenever Jaune was celebrating his success at his training. He fought off a smile of his own whenever Jaune started joking with Nora, occasionally ending up putting his arm around her shoulders sometimes (or, more accurately and more often Nora putting her arm around his shoulders).

"You're right," Ren said simply.

Nora grinned like a fool, jumping up and down excitedly and running around him.

"I knew it! I knew that you had feelings for him too!"

"I do."

Nora cheered loudly.

"Come on!" she grabbed onto his hand and started to pull him inside, almost causing Ren to fall over at her unnatural strength, "Come on! Let's go tell him!"

"Are you sure that now is a good time, Nora?" he questioned.

"It's always a good time for love, Renny Poo!" Nora proclaimed, finally dragging him to the door and throwing it open.

"JAUNE!" the knight almost fell off of the couch in shock, "Get your butt over here, we need to talk to you!" Nora cried.

"Uh, do we have to?" he asked worriedly.

Ren nodded solemnly, and Jaune turned to Pyrrha.

"Promise me you'll read my eulogy?"

"I promise, Jaune."

"Thanks. You're a good friend, Nikos."

He forced himself to his feet and walked toward the objects of his affection, though he felt as if he was marching to his death.

 _Maybe they'll let me down quick and painlessly,_ he thought, though he didn't believe it in the slightest.


	11. The 'Truth'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know a lot of fics try to fix Raven's character. I personally hate her, and will NOT be doing this. Sorry!

The woman from earlier poured tea into the cups in front of Raven and team RWBY, who were seated around a table. The four girls were on the opposite side of Raven, none of them wanting to have been seated beside her.

"You can wait outside, Vernal. Thank you," Raven said.

The woman stepped outside.

"So, what's the 'truth'?" Yang asked aggressively.

Raven took a sip of her tea.

"You know, it's better when it's hot," she mused.

Weiss knew she wasn't supposed to speak, but she couldn't stop herself.

"You know, you're really obnoxious," the former heiress said, glaring at the bandit leader. Ruby snorted, but tried to cover it up. Blake fought off a smile.

"The truth is that 'truth' is hard to come by. A story of victory for one person is a story of defeat for someone else. By now, your uncle has surely told you and your friends plenty of stories."

"Well, he's never given me a reason to doubt him before," Yang said pointedly.

"That doesn't mean those reasons don't exist," Yang glared darkly at her, "You know, you and your teammates might as well be the poster children for the Huntsmen academies. Your motives vary, but you all enrolled to try and make the world a better place. It's adorable."

"That's what Huntsmen and Huntresses do," Yang said.

"Not _all_ of them. Some people are just in it for the money and the fame, but there's even more that are just looking to grow stronger. Your Uncle Qrow and I didn't attend Beacon to become Huntsmen, we did it to learn how to _kill_ Huntsmen."

The four gasped. Blake and Ruby each put a hand on their weapons while Weiss once again slid her own into Yang's.

"Daddy and Uncle left that part out, hm?" she paused to pour more tea for herself, "Aside from the Grimm, Huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a counterforce," she paused and took a sip, "And Qrow and I were the perfect age. The entrance exams were child's play compared to what we'd already been through. We were good. So good, that we caught the attention of Beacon's very own headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping his eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew, but it was team STRQ he was interested in."

"What do you mean by that?" Yang asked.

"Constant attention, extra training missions, turning a blind eye whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble than we should've. Sound familiar?"

The four glanced at one another.

"What's your point?" Yang asked.

"How much do you know about Professor Ozpin? About his past?"

"We know about his pasts. All of them," Blake said pointedly.

"Then how much do you know about Salem?" Raven asked, taking another sip of her tea.

There was a moment of silence.

"I see. Old man Oz has a great and terrible secret. One that could spread fear across the world. One that he eventually entrusted to our team, and once I knew, there was no going back. I needed to know more, but with every new discovery I made, the more horrifying the world became."

"Okay then, what's the big secret? What's so crazy that the rest of us don't know?" Yang asked.

"The Creatures of Grimm... have a master named Salem. She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet."

The four were silent.

"What?" Weiss asked. They'd heard about the Grimm... but unstoppable?

"You know, you four haven't even touched your tea," Raven said.

"Why should we believe any of this?" Yang demanded.

"Now you're catching on. So far you've done nothing but accept what others tell you," she put her cup down, "but you need to question everything."

"Otherwise you'll end up just as blind as Qrow... and your fool of a father."

"Don't you _dare_ talk about my family like that!" Yang snapped, eyes turning dark red as she stood, her hand still being held back by Weiss' own. Ruby had the same look of anger, and Blake held the younger sister back with a calm hand on her shoulder.

The sound of a weapon being drawn came from behind them.

"You need to calm down," Vernal said lowly.

"Yang, please," Weiss said, tightening her grip on Yang's hand comfortingly.

"Listen to your friend, Yang. Your teammates never let you down before," Raven said.

"You don't know the _first_ thing about my teammates! About me! You were never there! You LEFT US!" her eyes flickered back to their normal shade of lilac purple, "You left Summer and Taiyang," her eyes became even more saddened, "Why?!"

"I know more than you realize. Not just about you, and not just what I've been told, but things I've seen with my _own_ eyes. I know the Grimm have a leader, I know people who can come back from the dead, I know that magic is real, and I can prove it," there was a moment of silence, "And who told you about my relationship with Summer and Taiyang?"

"It doesn't matter who told us," Yang snapped.

Raven took a moment to compose herself.

"Did Qrow tell you about my Semblance?"

Yang nodded.

"Well, I doubt he ever told you what Oz did to my brother and me," she exited the tent.

The four girls looked at each other.

"Go see for yourself," Vernal said.

They exit, and find nobody there.

"Mom?" Yang asked.

"Yang, are you okay?" Weiss muttered.

"I'll be fine once we can get her to take us to the Spring Maiden."

"It's okay if you're not alright," Weiss told her.

Yang took a moment to consider, glancing at her girlfriend with a slightly thankful expression.

"You didn't believe what she said, right?"

"Of course not!" Ruby snapped.

Before they could continue speaking, the familiar caw of a bird sounded through the air.

"A raven?" Blake said, stepping closer to Yang and putting a hand on her back consolingly.

"I've... seen that bird before," Yang said.

"Me too!" Ruby agreed.

"Maybe it belongs to your mom?" Weiss offered.

The bird took off in flight, transforming to Raven in midair.

"How... did you do that?" Yang asked.

"Well, I could explain it to you... or you could ask your uncle."

Raven opened a portal for the four of them to where they knew Qrow was.

"We're not leaving until you tell us where the Spring Maiden is," Blake said suddenly, glaring at Raven. She was tired of letting her step all over her girlfriend.

"I don't know where she is."

"Then why waste our time?!" Yang snapped, eyes turning red.

"You have to know where she is," Blake snapped, glaring at Yang's mother.

"Well, if you find her," Yang glared at her mother, taking a threatening step forward, "then tell her this message. Salem's coming for her. She's sending a woman named Emerald to kill her and take the power of the Maiden to get the Relic of Knowledge."

She grabbed Blake's hand and pulled both her girlfriends to the portal.

"Yang. If you side with your uncle, I may not be as kind the next time we meet..."

Yang rolled her eyes.

"You weren't kind this time either."

The four stepped through the portal.

"I know...," Raven muttered to herself.


	12. Conversations

"Uh, hey, Nora, you wanted to see me?" Jaune asked awkwardly, glancing between her and Ren.

Nora smirked.

"Yes, we did! Because you, Jauney, have a secret!" she cried.

Jaune's heart stopped.

"I, uh, what?! No, no I don't!"

Nora grabbed onto his wrist and tugged him outside. Ren followed her without prompting.

"Yes, you do!" Nora said excitedly. Her voice had an almost sing-songy voice as she spoke.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jaune was able to stutter out.

"Nora, maybe you should stop messing with him and tell him," Ren said, raising an eyebrow.

"But where's the fun in that?" Nora asked.

"I agree with Ren!" Jaune was able to say, though just barely.

Nora sighed sufferingly and glanced at Ren, eyes questioning. They exchanged some sort of silent conversation that Jaune couldn't understand before Nora turned back around to face him.

Nora was bouncing up and down on the tips of her toes, so Jaune expected her to speak, but Ren was the one to finally say something a moment later.

"Nora and I have decided to extend an invitation to you to join our relationship," Ren said, the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

Jaune stared at him in disbelief.

"You didn't say it right!" Nora whined.

"How was I supposed to say it?" Ren asked.

"With more excitement! Like this," she turned to face Jaune, "Jaune! We like you a lot! You should date us!" Nora said enthusiastically.

Jaune stared at them.

"You're messing with me, right?"

They both shook their heads.

"You can't be serious."

"Do you not want to?" Ren asked.

"I thought for sure you had a crush on us. I saw you checking out Ren's-"

Jaune flushed and cut her off.

"You can't seriously want me to join you, right?"

"We do!" Nora said.

"But you're...," Jaune struggled to speak for a moment, "You two are, like, perfect for each other!"

Nora grinned and Ren nodded, arms crossed.

"And amazing. Why would you want to date me?"

"Because we like you!" Nora supplied again.

Jaune sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"As much as I would love to date you, and trust me, it's a lot, I... can't."

Nora looked doubtful.

"I see. May I ask why?" Ren asked.

"Because... you two are just," Jaune gestured at them for an explanation, "I'd just be a third wheel."

"No you wouldn't!"

"I can assure you that you would not be. There's more than sufficient evidence that relationships with three people can be-"

"It's not about three people, it's about you two! You're perfect together!"

"We are," Ren said, nodding, "but we'd be infinitely better with you."

Jaune flushed a bright scarlet color.

"I... I don't know."

Nora was still bouncing up and down, and she glanced at Ren.

Ren nodded, and Nora let out a sound of excitement.

Jaune was about to ask them what they were thinking, but was stopped when Nora threw herself at Jaune, putting her arms around his neck and connecting their lips.

Jaune let out a sound of shock, but quickly sank into the kiss. Despite what he'd said, he couldn't stop himself, and let his arms loop around her waist, pulling her closer. Nora seemed to enjoy that, because she hummed against his lips. She pulled back and gave him a wide grin.

She pulled back, and Jaune was about to speak. Before he could, however, Nora gestured heavily at Ren, who moved forward and pulled Jaune in for a kiss of his own. Jaune couldn't think, and he found his hands resting on Ren's face while the ninja held him in a kiss.

When Ren pulled back, Jaune was left dazed, looking at the couple.

"So? Are you in?" Nora asked excitedly.

Jaune found himself nodding, almost without meaning to.

"Yes!" Nora cried, slapping Ren on the arm excitedly, "I told you! I told you he liked us!"

Ren smiled slightly, nodding at her words.

"Yes, you did."

Nora grabbed Jaune's hand and seemed as if she was about to kiss him again, the idea made his head spin and his heart race, but was cut off by a loud yell from Qrow.

The three took a moment to consider, glancing at each other before racing inside.

They were met with team RWBY standing beside Qrow, who seemed less shocked than before. A moment later, the rest of the houses occupants had joined them.

"Did she send you back?" Qrow asked.

Yang nodded, her arms crossed as she stared at him.

"What did she say?" Ozpin asked, having just taken over Oscar's body.

"She said she didn't know where the Spring Maiden was," Blake said.

"Which was obviously a lie," Weiss continued for her.

"She also said you didn't tell us the whole story," Yang said, staring at Ozpin.

"What do you mean?" Ozpin asked.

"You forgot something. You forgot to tell everyone what you did to Qrow and my mother."

"What is she talking about?" Jaune asked. Nora and Ren were standing closer to him than before, and he found it almost impossible to focus.

"My ability to reincarnate, though a curse, isn't without a few key benefits. Much like the Maidens, I too possess a certain... "magical" power," he stood and walked over to stand beside Qrow, "Using this power, I was able to gift the Branwen twins the ability to "see" more, to move freely and be unburdened by their natural bodies. I... well... gave them the ability to turn into birds," he chuckled, "ridiculous sounding out loud, isn't it?"

"You turned them... into birds," Ren said, arms once again crossed against his chest.

"Alright, now you're just messing with us," Nora said, throwing up her hands in frustration.

"What else is new?" Jaune snapped.

Nora put a hand on his arm, almost subconsciously.

"He's telling the truth. We saw it. Yang's mom... _changed_ , right in front of us," Weiss supplied.

"Why would you do something like that? I mean, what is wrong with you?" Yang asked, glaring at Oz.

"Yang, that's enough! We made a choice. We wanted this," Qrow said calmingly.

Ozpin turned to Qrow.

"May I?" Qrow nodded, "Granting this power to them was no trivial task, and I can assure you it was not done frivolously. I required assistance in gathering information on Salem's plans, as well as searching for Maidens when their hosts became unclear."

"Okay, so, have you done this with others? Like General Ironwood? Or Professor Goodwitch?" Ruby asked.

"As helpful as that might be, unfortunately, it is not that simple. My power is finite, and if I'm being honest, dwindling. The amount that I gifted to Qrow and Raven was, all things considered, rather miniscule. You see, centuries ago, I sacrificed a great deal of magic to , who I hoped would use my gift for good. They were the first Maidens."

There was a moment of silence.

"Miss Xiao Long, it was never my intention to lie to you. To any of you. There are just some matters that I prefer to... "play close to the chest". I believe that's how you phrased it?" he asked Qrow.

Qrow chuckled, "Yeah."

"Everyone has a choice. The Branwens chose to accept their powers and the responsibilities that came with them. And later, one of them chose to abandon her duties in favor of her own self-interest. Now, all of you have a choice. If anyone wishes to leave, now is the time. There's no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat," Ozpin said.

There was a moment of silence.

"Very well, then," Ozpin said.

Yang stood suddenly, and everyone turned to face her.

"Yang?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"If Ruby sticks around, then I will too. If there's one thing I know about her, it's that she somehow always knows the right thing to do. But, if we're going to help, if we're going to keep risking our lives, no more lies. No more half-truths," she said, smiling down at her sister.

"Yes! Friend Ruby always knows the right thing to do," Penny said, speaking up for the first time since entering the room. She glanced at Winter, who watched Weiss. The younger Schnee slid her hand into Ruby's, nodding at Penny's words. Winter nodded at Penny, and the redhead grinned.

Penny's eyes shot to Ciel, who was signing with Neo.

 _'I say we slit his throat for lying to us,'_ Neo said.

Ciel slapped her on the arm.

_'I do hope you're joking, because we're staying. Penny and Ruby are right.'_

Ciel glanced at her partner, and shared a smile with Penny.

Pyrrha glanced at the rest of her team, hand on Ilia's shoulder.

The three were standing far closer than they ever had before, and she raised an intrigued eyebrow at that, but didn't comment.

She communicated with Jaune silently.

He told her that Ren and Nora were staying here with him, and Pyrrha smiled, nodding. Team JNIPR was staying.

"Understood," Ozpin said, glancing around the room at everyone else.

Yang said back down, Blake putting an arm loosely around her waist.

"So... what now? I mean, what can we do?" Jaune asked.

"Mm, that is a difficult question. One that I believe is best answered tomorrow," Ozpin said.

"What do you mean?" Penny asked.

"The road ahead is undoubtedly filled with hardships and peril. However, it's been far too long since you have all been together," he put his hand on Yang's shoulder, "Please, take tonight, enjoy this moment."

Yang smiled at him thankfully.

Oscar's eyes shifted colors and he stumbled slightly. He realized his hand was on Yang's shoulder and let out a sound of shock, falling backward, making all of team RWBY laughed as he awkwardly put his hand back on his cane.

Nora's eyes suddenly widened in realization.

"Oooohhh. Raven? Qrow? They're birds!! Cracked it!" she cried.

Jaune and Ren stared at her, both shaking their head at her, though both had a fond light to their eyes.

-

They were all seated in the main room, with the notable exception of Qrow, who had gone out, almost certainly to find a nearby bar.

Ren, Jaune, and Nora were all seated together on the couch, the knight in the middle with a wide smile on his face.

Yang raised an eyebrow and glanced at the three of them.

"So that's new," she said, gesturing at them vaguely, "What's going on here?"

Jaune flushed and opened his mouth to deny any change.

"We're dating!" Nora said.

"You told us," Ruby said, "We saw your first kiss."

"Nora means that we have engaged in a polyamorous relationship with Jaune," Ren said, sipping his tea.

Pyrrha grinned.

"See? I told you everything would work out fine, Jaune," she said.

Ilia also seemed happy for them, but for once it wasn't because Jaune was no longer an option for Pyrrha. She was actually happy for her other three teammates.

 _'Why are all of your friends insane, Gorgeous?'_ Neo signed.

 _'You're insane too, Neo,'_ Ciel responded.

_'So you're saying that you attract the crazies?'_

Before Ciel could respond, Penny burst into the room and raced toward Ruby, tackling her in a hug.

Ruby let out a cry of shock, falling backwards in her chair onto the ground and dragging Weiss down with her.

"Winter! Come get your girlfriend!" Weiss cried, struggling to get up with Ruby's hand still holding her own.

"I'm busy!" Winter called.

Yang and Blake burst out laughing while Ruby tried to talk to Penny, who was saying something to their team leader about helping her become a real person and helping her understand emotions.

Meanwhile, Jaune was being pushed up against Ren's side as Nora leaned closer and closer to him, muttering something that was probably suggestive to the knight and making him blush. Pyrrha made a look of disgust and turned to distract herself with Ilia, but Ilia was talking to Blake now about their home

 _'Alright, you attract the crazies. I give,'_ Neo signed.

Ciel sighed sufferingly.


	13. Backstabs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know it's a short chapter, but I just gave you a 2k one. Don't give me grief.

Raven glanced outside. Salem's people had just left, leaving her and Vernal alone in her tent.

"Do you... actually believe they'll let us go once they have the Relic?" Vernal asked.

"Of course not. They'll never leave us alone. Once our purpose has come and gone, we'll be discarded. Salem only uses people until they are no longer useful. If we want to have any chance of defending ourselves against her, then we need this Relic. If Qrow and those brats want to follow Ozpin, then let them. When the chaos reaches its peak, we'll grab the Relic and make our escape."

"And the fact that your daughter will be a part of all that?"

"Doesn't matter. I warned her. She made her choice," Raven said, standing and heading toward the exit of the tent, "This path won't be easy for us either, but we must do what's right for the tribe."

"I know. I'll do whatever it takes," Vernal said.

"Good."


	14. Switch Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter was inspired from a request by EminentLifeform in the comments! I will continue to have the Oscar stuff, bud!

The group was planning to speak to Lionheart tomorrow, as he had asked for a meeting, and the plan was being finalized.

"There needs to two teams," Ozpin said, pacing Oscar's body back and forth in front of the people in the room, "One that stays here, and one that comes with me to Lionheart."

"Why do people need to stay here?" Penny asked.

"We can't be sure that Salem won't attack the school while we're there. We can't put the Maidens in jeopardy," Ozpin said.

"But we could help," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah!" Penny agreed.

"Or you could get yourselves killed and let Salem have control of another Maiden," Qrow said, taking another sip of his drink.

"We need people here to protect the Maidens as well," Ozpin continued.

"I'll stay behind," Ilia said quickly

"Me too," Winter agreed. Her wounds were healed now, and she finally felt up to fighting, as she had been training for the past few days.

"Neo and I can stay too," Ciel said.

_'Just because I can't speak doesn't mean you can speak for me, Gorgeous. I have rights.'_

"What did she say?" Ozpin asked

Ciel subtly kicked Penny before she could translate.

"She said that she would be honored to keep Pyrrha and Penny safe," Ciel said.

Neo rolled her eyes, but smirked.

 _'You could have just asked. You know I'd do anything for you,'_ she paused, wiggling her eyebrows, _'or to-'_

Ciel grabbed Neo's hands to silence her further, not wanting Penny to ask her what Neo had meant. It seemed that the criminal very much enjoyed embarrassing Ciel in front of Penny.

"Then the rest of you can come with Qrow and myself to meet with Lionheart," Ozpin said.

"For now, get back to training," Qrow said, sauntering off inside, likely to drink himself to sleep on the couch again.

Ruby and Yang watched him go with frustration, but didn't say anything.

-

Jaune was practicing with Oscar again, the young boy putting up a good fight and wining as many as he lost, much to Jaune's frustration.

Ren and Nora were, once again, training with Ilia, who was barely surviving by using her color changing abilities to keep from getting hit.

Ciel was practicing with Neo, the criminal mostly taunting and playing with her, because she was almost certain to win every round. This just frustrated Ciel, who slapped her on the arm.

Winter and Weiss were training with their summoning, and the younger of the two barely kept her celebratory noises to herself whenever she succeeded.

Penny and Pyrrha were still trading tips about their Maiden powers.

With Weiss busy, Ruby took a break and watched Blake and Yang fighting, the two making a good match considering they both knew each other's weaknesses.

After the first round, Ozpin had them switch into pairs that had never fought against each other before. The only pair he kept the same was Pyrrha and Penny, but everyone else was drastically switched.

-

Ren watched Neopolitan with distrust, seeing her spin her parasol almost lackadaisically, smirking up at him. She signed something for a moment before remembering he didn't speak sign language. She shrugged, not seeming to care, and moved toward him.

The two were an okay match up, though Neo was slightly more qualified and was beating Ren backward without any sense of guilt, unlike when she had been paired against Ciel. Ren was gaining some ground on her, parrying her attacks with kicks and punches, but wasn't expecting Neo to change form right before his eyes. Looking back, he certainly should have seen this coming, but he didn't. When he was met face to face with Jaune, he froze, finding himself unable to strike him out of surprise. Neo took advantage of this, striking him in the chest with what appeared to be a sword, but was undoubtedly her parasol.

Jaune was sparring against Nora, finding that his new girlfriend would definitely not hold anything back against him, but to his frustration. He heard a cry of shock, and the two of them froze, turning to face Ren, who was barely defending himself against... Jaune himself?!

"Ren! That's not him!" Nora called.

"Yeah!" Jaune called.

Ren glanced to the side as he deflected another blow, seeing Jaune and Nora.

He shook his head and forced himself to pay attention to Neo, who was still pressing ever closer in an attempt to end the match. He knew it wasn't Jaune, logically, but it still messed with his head. Before his eyes, Jaune shifted to Nora, smiling at him kindly.

Ren stumbled back.

Ciel was in a battle against Ilia, watching the faunus using her color change as her main weapon, attempting to conceal herself in the shadows around her. Ciel raised an eyebrow, an unimpressed look on her face.

Ilia seemed shocked when Ciel was able to identify her in the dark, swinging her sword and striking her in the gut.

"Ilia, I'm dating Neopolitan, I'm more than used to seeing people try to hide by transforming their appearance. It would probably be beset if you used another tactic."

Ciel heard a sound of shock and glanced over her shoulder at Ren, who was now fighting... Nora?

Ilia swung Lightning Lash at Ciel, who blocked it with her sword.

"Neo, stop messing with him!" she called, not looking over her shoulder at her girlfriend.

Neopolitan sighed silently and her form shifted back to normal as she stared at Ren.

Ren seemed surprised, and she shrugged as if to say _'Ciel said to stop. You're lucky I'm the perfect girlfriend.'_

Ren regained his mental fortitude and the fight returned to normal, allowing him to have a fighting chance against the criminal.

Meanwhile, Winter was fighting against Yang, having to keep the blond at a distance to avoid getting his while Yang used her semblance. Winter wasn't as good at hand to hand combat, so it would certainly be best if Yang was kept as far away from her as possible.

Blake and Weiss were fighting, though it was clear that neither one was using their entire power, each rather worried about hurting the other.

"What? You didn't hold back any punches with me, Kit-Kat! What makes Weiss so special?" Yang called, smirking as she deflected a swing from Winter's sword with her gauntlet.

"Because you almost took my head off," Blake responded, rolling her eyes.

Ruby was fighting against Oscar, who was thankfully not being controlled by Ozpin, to practice her hand to hand fighting. Oscar seemed slightly distracted as he watched her fighting. The two traded blows back and forth, Ruby having the upper hand for a while before Oscar heard a whisper in the back of his mind, telling him to focus.

Oscar felt frustrated. Frustrated at his situation, frustrated at having a crazy old man in the back of his head, frustrated that he had to leave home, frustrated that he was being forced to train like this... He put all of his frustration into one attack, launching himself at Ruby in an attack to punch her, put the two of them went tumbling to the ground, rolling for a few meters before coming to a stop, Oscar hovering over Ruby with his hands planted on either side of her arms to steady himself, their legs tangled together.

Oscar blushed a deep red color and, after a moment of shock, attempted to untangle himself from Ruby, which was difficult with their legs in a pile of limbs.

Weiss and Blake had both been watching Ruby and Oscar fighting out of the corner of their eyes, and they stopped as one, just a moment from sending another attack at each other. They made eye contact for a brief second before they raced toward Ruby and her sparring partner.

Weiss let out a frustrated growl, though it was quiet, and helped untangle the two from each other while Blake pulled Ruby to her feet, pulling her close and wrapping an arm around her waist with one hand landing on her hip.

Weiss moved closer to Ruby, putting a hand on her arm possessively, sending a glance at Oscar.

"Are you alright? Did you get hurt?" Weiss asked.

Ruby seemed confused.

"I'm fine. I've taken worse hits than that before!"

Yang glanced at her confused sister and rolled her eyes. Of course she didn't know why their girlfriends were suddenly giving her so much attention.

Oscar seemed awkward, kicking the dust at his feet and running his hands up and down his cane.

"Uh, sorry. I should have been more careful," he said.

"It's alright!" Ruby said happily, giving Blake and Weiss each a fond smile before removing herself from their embrace and returning to Oscar.

"Let's try again! I'll beat you this time!" Ruby said excitedly, putting her fists up and bouncing back and forth like a boxer.

Oscar let out a quiet laugh before nodding and raising his fists, discarding the staff beside him.

Blake and Weiss watched with narrowed eyes before turning back to their own sparring match, but neither paid attention completely.


	15. Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry!

Oscar (with Ozpin in control), Qrow, team RWBY, Jaune, Nora, and Ren walked into Haven academy. As soon as they entered, they were met by Leonardo Lionheart.

"Why hello. Thank you for... coming," he spoke nervously, "There... seems to be more of you than last time," he continued, eyeing the students.

"Eh, you know what they say, "The more the merrier". So what's going on with the council?" Qrow said.

"Why... did you bring your weapons?" the headmaster asked.

"What? Leo, we're Huntsmen. You okay?" Qrow asked.

"Of course! Of course, sorry. Just haven't had my evening coffee," he said.

"Look, it's nice to see you, but we got work to do. Are we getting support from the council or not?" Qrow insisted.

Yang looked to the side, catching sight of a large dark bird.

"Mom?" she asked without thinking.

The bird flied down, landing behind Lionheart and transforming into Raven.

"Raven...," Ruby said lowly.

Yang's teammates moved closer to her protectively.

"They... they really are magic...," Nora muttered.

"What are you doing here?!" Qrow cried.

"I could ask you the same thing. You've been scheming, little brother. Planning to attack your own sister," Raven said, taking off her mask.

"Leo... what have you done?!" Qrow snapped.

"I...," Lionheart trailed off.

"Leo did what any sane person would in his position - he looked at all the information he had in front of him, assessed the situation, and made a choice. And it seems you all have too," Raven said.

" _You_ have the Spring Maiden," Qrow growled.

"I do," Raven said, sounding almost smug.

"Then hand her over and let's work together! We can beat Salem!"

"All that time spent spying for Ozpin and you still have no idea what you're dealing with. There _is_ no beating Salem!" Raven cried.

"You're wrong. We've done things that most people would call impossible, and I know the only reason we were able to do it is because we didn't do it alone! We had people to teach us, people to help us, we had each other. Work with us. At least I know we'll have a better chance if we try together. Please," Ruby said. She held out her hand for Raven to take.

There was a moment of hesitation in Raven as she stared at Ruby. She shook her head almost unnoticeably.

"You sound just like Summer," she said.

Raven waved her hand to open a portal, where a fireball shot through, striking Ruby in the gut.

"Ruby!" three voices called out as one.

Blake dropped to her knees beside Ruby, giving Weiss and Yang the chance to assess the threat.

"Hello boys and girls," Emerald said, stalking through the portal.

Ruby pushed herself to a sitting position and Blake hauled her to her feet.

"Emerald...," Ruby said lowly, glaring at her.

Vernal and Mercury stepped out of the portal behind her.

"C'mon guys, is that any way to greet your old friends?" Mercury asked.

Yang growled at him.

"Everybody, stay calm," Qrow said.

A large man by the name of Hazel stepped through the doors behind them.

"The White Fang is prepping demolition and securing the school grounds. No one's getting in, and no one's getting out," he said.

"The White Fang?" Blake asked, but nobody responded to her.

"This was all just a trap?" Weiss asked.

"It appears so...," Ren said, pulling out his weapons.

"Raven, tell me... how long have you been with them?" Qrow asked.

"Aww, don't take it personally, little bird. Your sister was a recent addition. The lion on the other hand... Entrance into the Vytal Festival was a real treat, Leonardo's been sending Salem all sorts of information for a very, _very_ long time. Isn't that right, professor?" Emerald said.

"Stop it...," Lionheart said shamefully.

"It was you... you sit on the Mistral Council. You had information on every Huntsman and Huntress in the Kingdom, and you gave it all to her?" Qrow asked, thinking of the countless dead Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"I--"

"I couldn't find any of them, because you let her kill them!" Qrow cried.

"Aw now, don't beat yourself up about it, Lionheart, I'm sure Tyrian and Hazel would've found them on their own eventually," Emerald said, smirking.

"What is wrong with you...? How can you be so broken inside... to take so many lives, and then come here and rub it in our faces like it's something to be proud of?!" Jaune cried.

"Jaune," Nora said comfortingly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Everybody, stay calm!" Qrow snapped.

"Hey there, Blondie. I'm thinking you owe me an apology for my leg, don't ya think?" Mercury asked.

Yang growled.

"Take out the heiress. Don't bother wasting your power, she's not worth it," Raven said to Vernal.

Raven drew her sword, but Qrow blocked her attack with his scythe.

"Running away was one thing, but this... you've crossed the line!" Qrow snappd.

"Sorry, brother. Sometimes family disappoints you like that."

"We're not family anymore."

"Were we ever?" Raven asked.

"I thought so, but I guess I was wrong," Qrow snapped, though his voice was quieter, hurt even.

Vernal stepped toward Weiss.

"Let's see what the Schnee name really means," she said.

"I'm more than a name," Weiss said.

"Hm, prove it."

Blake glanced at her teammates before dropping into place beside Weiss.

"Still paying people to fight your battles?" Vernal sneered at Weiss.

"It's not her battle," Blake pulled her weapons from their sheaths, "it's ours."

Oscar ran up the stairs to follow Lionheart, who watched the battle with a fearful look on his face.

Ren and Nora blocked Hazel from following him, raising their weapons defenseively.

"I don't wish to fight either of you," the large man said.

"Nor I you," Ren said.

"But we will if you're with her!" Nora added.

Hazel cracked his neck and his knuckles.

"Very well, then," he said ominously.

Lionheart spun to face Oscar.

"Young man, I don't know who you are or what you think you're doing, but for your sake, I suggest you leave. Now."

Oscar remained where he stood.

Lionheart drew his weapon.

"I'm warning you!" he cried shakily.

Oscar drew something from behind his back and Lionheart jumped in shock, holding out his weapon.

"That's enough!"

He shot his weapon at Oscar, who defended himself with his aura, remaining unscathed. He drew his staff.

"Ozpin?" Lionheart asked in shock.

"Not quite," Oscar said.

"This can't be... I knew you would be back, but... you made it here! You found Qrow! How?" Lionheart cried.

"Wait. You can't have had this form for long. You're... not _really_ Ozpin right now. Boy. Child. If I deliver you to Salem, she'll have to be pleased with me, and I can finally get out of all of this! I can finally be _free_!" he continued.

"What do I do?" Oscar whispered to himself.

"Fight," Ozpin said in his head dryly.

Weiss was knocked back several feet by Vernal, but Blake defended her, using her weapon to shoot Vernal while Weiss hurried to her feet.

Jaune was seething with rage, attacking Emerald without nay sense of reason or planning. He tried, in vain, to stab her with his sword. She was too fast, and began to toy with him. Jaune remembered Emerald. She had been the one at the Vytal Festival that had gotten team RWBY disqualified. Had helped Cinder almost kill Pyrrha.

Her missing eye was ominous, but it gave Jaune a sense of grim satisfaction that she wasn't invincible.

"Stop messing with me!" Jaune screamed.

"If that's what you want...," Emerald said, smirking.

Ruby glanced away from Mercury, whom she had been helping her sister fight, and saw Jaune.

" **NO!** " she cried, eyes glowing a brilliant silver color.

Behind her, Mercury brought back his leg, spinning in a tight flip, and struck Ruby in the head, knocking her out.

"Get away from her!" Yang shrieked, attacking Mercury relentlessly and keeping herself between him and her sister.

Emerald cried out in pain, clutching her arm as she dropped to her knees in pain.

She looked up, barely avoiding Jaune's attack as he swung his sword at her face. When she avoided the attack, Jaune stumbled and tripped, falling against the ground.

Emerald got back to her feet, enraged, and activated her Summer Maiden powers, stepping on Jaune's back.

"Did you think you actually had a chance against me?! **You?!!** "

Jaune struggled to reach his weapon, and Emerald calmed herself.

"You're just a failure with a death wish."

"If I die buying them time, then it's worth it. They're the ones that matter," Jaune said, struggling to breathe.

"You think so?" Emerald asked. She looked at Jaune's friends. Her gaze landed on Weiss, who had just been knocked back several feet by an attack from Vernal, but Blake dropped back with Weiss, grabbing onto her. Vernal shot another attack at the two, but Blake and Weiss disappeared with an explosion, reappearing behind Vernal. Blake swung her weapon at the back Vernal's head. She barely evaded, and Emerald turned her attention away from them.

Emerald's gaze landed on Nora, who was on the ground, recuperating from an attack from Hazel.

"No...," Jaune said, horror ringing through his voice, " **NOOOOOOO!!!** " he screamed, struggling against Emerald.

Emerald raised a spear, which she had copied from Cinder's weapon, and launched it at Nora.

" _NORA!_ " Jaune shrieked.

Nora had finally gotten to her feet and spun at the sound of Jaune calling her.

The spear impaled her in the chest, disintegrating after a moment.

Nora fell to her knees while Ren and Jaune screamed.


	16. Vault

" _NORA_!" Jaune screamed.

Jaune pushed past Emerald and scrambled toward his girlfriend, falling to his knees beside her and hyperventilating as he pressed his hands to her stomach in vain.

Oscar watched him run before his gaze landed on Ruby, who was still on the ground, unconscious, and being defended by Yang from Mercury.

He scrambled toward Ruby and kneeled down beside her.

"Ruby, get up! Get up! We need you!"

Hazel picked up Lionheart by his collar.

"You're lettin' that boy make a fool of you."

"That's not just a boy! It's Ozpin. He's already reincarnated!"

Hazel dropped Lionheart and turned to face Oscar, who was still trying to shake Ruby awake. He noticed the staff in the boy's hand.

"Ozpin?"

Oscar continued to shake Ruby, who suddenly stirred.

"Ruby! You-"

" **OZPIN!!!!** " Hazel screamed

 _Oh no..._ Ozpin said in Oscar's head.

"You thought you could hide from **ME?!!** " Hazel screamed, "You'll pay for what you did! You'll die over and _over_ again!!"

Hazel slammed lightning dust into his skin.

"Do-- do we fight?" Oscar muttered.

"No, run!" Ozpin screamed in his head.

"LEO! OPEN THE VAULT!" Emerald screamed off to the side, watching Ozpin closely.

Yang watched Raven hurry with Vernal and Emerald toward the vault

"Stop them! We've got your team covered!" Ren cried, though he was watching Nora from the corner of his eye as he helped Ruby to her feet.

Yang went to follow, but was kicked by Mercury.

"You wanna get to them? You're going to have to get through _all_ of us," he said.

Ren ran back to Nora as Ruby steadied herself behind Yang.

"Ren, talk to me!" Jaune cried.

"This... this is bad," he muttered, leaning closer to Nora and grabbing her hand in his own. His eyes clouded with tears. Jaune's did the same.

"No, no, no, no, NO! Nora, c'mon, please!" he cried.

Emerald paused to speak to Lionheart.

"Make sure they leave Ruby alive. This won't take long."

"She's hardly breathing. I... I don't know what we can do...," Ren said helplessly, looking down at Nora.

She struggled to breathe for a moment before suddenly stopping.

"No, it wasn't supposed to be like this! Please!" Jaune's voice broke, "We can't lose her!"

A bright white light spread from Jaune to cover Nora, making her glow a brilliant white shade. She suddenly breathed deeply, her eyes fluttering open. She looked between Jaune and Ren.

"Huh? Wha- what's happening?" Jaune asked.

"Nora!" Ruby used her semblance to race across the battlefield and stop beside the three members of team JNIPR.

"What happened?! What's going on?!" 

Ren was smiling and wiping away tears of relief. Jaune was openly weeping.

"I think she's going to be okay! She seems to be stabilizing," Ren said.

Ruby glanced over her shoulder, finding that Yang was still struggling against Mercury, trying to get past him.

She reached down and lifted Jaune's hands up, finding that Nora's injury had closed.

"Whatever you're doing, don't stop!" Ruby said.

"I won't."

"Ren, you need to cover them," she said.

Ren stood and drew his weapons, eyes turning angry and fierce for the first time Ruby had ever seen.

"Don't worry, Ruby. I won't let anyone touch them," he growled out.

She watched for another moment before letting out a sigh of relief. She used her semblance to race around the room, stopping beside Weiss and Blake. They didn't have anyone to fight now that Vernal was gone, and they were about to join Yang.

"Oscar needs help," she said.

"I'll get it," Weiss said instantly, using her glyph to help her run faster.

Ruby grabbed onto Blake's hand, tugging her into her arms. When the faunus was secure, she used her semblance to race toward Yang, dropping Blake beside her sister and knocking Mercury off of his feet with a kick.

Blake helped Yang to her feet.

"Thanks. You two okay?" she asked, raising her fists.

"No, I'm _angry_ ," Ruby said lowly, pulling her scythe out from behind her back. 


	17. The Lamp

"How is she?" Ren asked.

"She's coming to. I just wish this would go faster," Jaune muttered

"How about you don't complain and just be thankful you unlocked your Semblance when you did," Ren said.

"My Semblance?"

"How else would you be healing her, Jaune?" Ren asked.

"No. I don't think I'm healing her. Our Aura heals our bodies. It feels... it feels more like I'm using my Aura to amplify hers!"

"Could you run out?" Ren questioned, suddenly sounding worried.

"Pyrrha once told me I've got a lot of it. I still believe her."

Suddenly, Nora stirred.

"Jaune?" she asked quietly.

Across the room, Weiss deflected an attack from Hazel, but the lightning dust from her arm caused her to scream in pain.

Blake turned from where she stood beside Ruby and Yang.

"Go! I'll help Yang!" Ruby cried.

Blake nodded, taking off at a sprint toward their girlfriend.

"Jaune... what's happening?" Nora asked.

"You took a heavy hit, you need to stay with me while the others fight."

"No way!" Nora said, struggling to sit up. She couldn't.

Jaune gently pushed her back down to the ground.

"Good to have you back, Nora."

He wiped away a few remaining tears, and Nora laughed quietly.

Across the room, Blake blocked Weiss from an attack while the heiress summoned a glyph under her feet.

Blake used the glyph to gain speed, racing toward the large man. Another glyph appeared, and Blake used it to power up her next hit, where she slammed against him at full speed.

Hazel skidded against the floor, slumping for a moment.

"His Semblance... he can block out pain. It's how he is able to handle injecting so much Dust into his body," Ozpin's voice called from Oscar's body.

Weiss stepped up beside Blake, limping just slightly.

"We don't need him to feel pain," Weiss said, "we just need him to go down."

-

"What's happening?" Nora asked.

"I'm not sure. How are you feeling?" Jaune questioned worriedly.

She sat up, smirking slightly.

"Better. Much better. Keep it up."

She reached to the side and picked up her hammer, looking around the room.

-

Mercury knocked Ruby's weapon to the ground.

"Uh oh, what're you gonna do now?" he asked sarcastically.

Ruby pulled back her arm and punched him straight in the face, just as Ozpin had showed her.

"Whatever it takes to shut you up," she said, kicking Crescent Rose into the air and catching it. She transformed it into rifle mode and shot at him, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Yang, go!" Ruby shouted.

Her sister raced past her, ducking into the passageway that she had seen her mother and Emerald go down with Vernal.

Mercury scrambled to his feet to chase after Yang.

Nora pulled her arm back and activated her semblance to power her next move. Her arm shot forward and she threw her hammer, which hit Mercury in the face, causing him to fall over, unconscious.

Nora cheered and Jaune laughed, catching Nora before she could fall back over.

"I love you," he muttered. Jaune's eyes widened. He hadn't meant to say that. He hurried, trying to think of a way to take it back, but not finding one.

Nora glanced at him and grinned broadly.

"Ren would say this isn't the time for this," she mused.

Jaune was about to respond, but Nora pulled him in for a quick kiss.

When they separated, she said "I love you too, ya big dummy."

-

"Vernal was a decoy the whole time. The Spring Maiden lastmust've trusted you a great deal before she died. I bet that was a mistake...," Emerald said.

Raven growled and shot toward her fellow Maiden, colliding with her in mid air. They both raised their swords, which hit one another and burst into shrapnel.

Emerald let out a hiss of pain, grabbing her arm, which had shrapnel embedded in it now.

"Aura can't protect your arm, it's Grimm," Raven said as Emerald dug the shrapnel out with her other Grimm claws, "You turned yourself into a monster just for power."

Emerald conjured another weapon, glaring darkly at Raven.

"Look who's talking..."

The two continue to battle, spinning around each other in a blur of swords and color, the red of Raven and the green of Emerald swirling together and creating a blinding halo of paradoxical death around their fight. Raven aimed her attacks at Emerald’s arms, hoping to injure the Grimm parts of her. Emerald walked the razor thin line of using her arm for its unique ability to steal Maiden power and avoiding having it cut off by Raven.

“You’d think someone as smart as you,” Raven said, “would remember to watch their back.”

Emerald spun, just in time to get shot in the chest by Vernal.

Emerald staggered, and Raven slammed against her, shoving her off the cliff.

“Thank you, Vernal,” Raven said solemnly.

She turned from the dead bandit and went to face the entranceway to the relic.

She set her hand on the door and the leaves around her picked up into the air as the door glowed, opening slowly.

Before she could enter, a gunshot echoed through the air, and she froze. The familiar sound of the shot caused her to turn slowly.

Yang stood at the entranceway to the vault, glaring at her mother.

-

Nora jumped to her feet, wobbling almost unnoticeably, and grabbed onto Jaune’s hand, pulling him toward where Weiss and Blake were fighting Hazel.

“Come on,” she said.

Ren followed the pair, though he looked wary at Nora’s newfound energy.

“Is she alright to fight?” he asked Jaune, who still had his hand connected to Nora’s. Extending from his hand was a glow of white Aura that encompassed their girlfriend, continuing to enhance her own Aura.

“I guess. She seems fine,” Jaune said worriedly.

Nora glanced back at them, grinning.

“I feel great!” she said enthusiastically.

She pulled Jaune forward and Ren was forced to run to keep up with them.

“You guys okay?” Jaune said when they reached Blake and Weiss.

Weiss coughed while Blake groaned.

“Surviving,” Weiss said.

“ I don't know how that big guy is still standing. He recharges his Aura faster than I've ever seen!” Blake said.

Qrow flew, in bird form, toward Hazel, hitting him with his scythe.

Hazel punched him and he stumbled back, grunting in pain.

“He's sheer willpower,” Qrow said, voice gravelly.

“We just need to get him to his limit!” Ozpin called.

Ruby let out a scream of pain, which caused both Blake and Weiss to spin, finding their girlfriend fighting against Lionheart and Mercury.

“Go, we’ll take care of this idiot,” Nora said.

Blake and Weiss gave her thankful looks before they both shot forward, using the former heiress’ glyphs to hasten their approach.

Blake slammed against the large man with her shoulder, causing him to fall to the ground. As the two of them fell, the faunus whipped her weapons forward and shot Lionheart in midair. Just before Lionheart hit the ground, she brought her feet up, pushing off of him and causing her to go straight into a back handspring, landing beside Ruby.

Weiss summoned a glyph under Mercury’s feet, halting him in place before it exploded, sending him tumbling to the ground with a loud cry of shock and pain.

“Well, what's the plan, Ruby?” Weiss asked.

Lionheart scrambled away, causing Mercury to curse loudly.

“Checkmate!” Ruby cried.

Weiss grabbed Blake’s ribbon and set a glyph, letting both of them shoot forward at inhuman speed, Ruby following behind via the use of her semblance.

-

“I warned you, Yang. I gave you every opportunity to walk away from Qrow and Oz. So you can believe me when I say this wasn't personal.”

Yang glared at her mother.

“You opened the vault.”

“Thanks to the chaos you and your friends caused upstairs. I knew you could handle it. You're my daughter after all.”

“Qrow and Oz told me how the Maiden powers are transferred. The girl you found... she would've had to have trusted you if you were in her final thoughts - cared about you a lot,” Yang said.

“I'm sure they told you plenty, and you just sat and obeyed,” Raven sneered.

“No, I'm starting to ask questions like you said. So tell me... what happened to the last Spring Maiden? Did she die in battle? Was it sickness?” Yang asked.

“What does it matter to you?” Raven snapped.

Yang’s eyes widened.

“I can already see the answer. It's all over your face. How could you?!” she cried.

“She was scared when we found her! Weak. No matter how much training I put her through, she never learned! She wasn't cut out for this world! And with those powers, she would've been hunted her entire life! What I did-”

“‘Wasn't personal’,” Yang quoted her mother, voice laden with sarcasm and anger.

“It was mercy!” Raven cried.

“Which is it, mom? Are you merciful, or are you a survivor? Did you let me walk into that trap because you knew I could handle it, or because it meant you could get what you wanted?!” Yang snapped, advancing on her slowly.

“It's not that simple. You don't know me, you don't know what I've been through, the choices I've had to make!” Raven cried.

“You're right. I don't know you. I only know the Raven dad told me about. She was troubled, and complicated, but she fought for what she believed in, whether it was her team or her tribe! Did you kill her too?”

“I've stared death in the face over and over again!” Raven’s Maiden powers activated in her rage, “And every time I've spat in that face and survived, because I'm strong enough to do what others won't!”

“Oh, shut up! You don't know the first thing about strength! You turn your back on people, you run away when things get too hard, you put others in harm's way instead of yourself! You might be powerful, but that doesn't make you strong.”

“Who do you think you are, lecturing me?! Standing there, shaking like a scared little girl!” Raven bellowed.

“Yeah, I'm scared. But I'm still standing here!” Yang continued to advance on her mother, “I'm not like you, I won't run, which is why you're going to give me the Relic.”

“And why would I-”

“Because you're afraid of Salem! And if you thought having Maiden powers put a target on your back, imagine what she'll do when she finds out you have a Relic. She'll come after you with everything she has. Or she can come after me. And I'll be standing there, waiting for her,” Yang said calmly.

Raven’s powers deactivated weakly.

“You don't want to do this, Yang,” she said somberly.

“Nope. But I’m gonna do it anyway.”

“I...,” Raven trailed off, tears in her eyes, “I'm sorry...”

Tears welled in Yang’s eyes.

“Yeah... me too.”

Raven turned into her bird form and flew outside, leaving Yang to enter through the giant doors, grabbing the relic.

She wiped away the tears in her eyes and hurried back upstairs to search for her team.

When she got out, she found her team on their own, Hazel and Mercury somehow having made their escape.

Nora was on her feet, which surprised Yang, and was leaning against Jaune while her boyfriends stared at her worriedly.

The three hurried to her side.

“Are you alright?”

Yang went to wipe at her eyes, but Weiss raised her hand, thumb running along Yang’s cheeks to clean off her tears.

Blake took Yang’s hand, squeezing it gently.

“I’m fine. I got the relic,” Yang said.

Her teammates didn’t seem to care about the relic as much as they cared about her wellbeing, but Oscar, controlled by Ozpin, took the lamp quickly, examining it.

“Did Raven just let you have it?” Qrow asked doubtfully.

Yang stiffened at the mention of her mother, and Weiss glared darkly at Qrow.

“Yeah. She didn’t want another target on her back.

“Another?” Ozpin prompted.

Before Yang could continue, the door to the school opened, revealing a very familiar face.

“Blake?” Velvet asked.

Team RWBY spun.

“Velvet?!”

“What are you guys doing here?” Velvet asked, opening the doorway fully and revealing the rest of her team behind her.

“We could ask you the ask thing,” Weiss said.

“We just took out the last of this branch of the White Fang!” Fox said proudly.

“You did?!” Blake cried.

“Yup!”

“That is what you wanted us to do, right?” Velvet asked worriedly.

“I... I just wanted you to raise awareness of how evil the White Fang was back home... but... wow. That’s amazing!”

“We know,” Fox said smugly.

Coco slapped him in the back of the head.

“This is a touching reunion, really, but we’re forgetting something,” Qrow drawled.

“What?”

“We have two Maidens back at the safe house that are practically unguarded while Salem’s people are on the loose.”

There was a moment of silence before everyone raced outside, team CFVY following after a moment of confusion.


	18. Cheaters

"Go fish," Ciel said.

Neo laughed silently as Winter reached into the deck, picking up the top card.

"Does anyone have any threes?" Ilia asked.

Neo shook her head, and Ciel slapped her arm.

The criminal groaned, plucking a pair of cards from her hand and sliding them over to the faunus.

"Any fives?"

Neo shook her head again, and this time Ciel let her slide.

_'Are you cheating and looking at my hand? That's low, Gorgeous.'_

_'You were ACTUALLY cheating, Neo!'_

_'Exactly! So I of all people should know what counts as cheating!'_

Ciel couldn't stop herself from laughing, and Neo grinned.

"Tens?" Pyrrha questioned.

Nobody gave her any, and Ciel glanced at her cards.

"Neo, give me your jacks."

_'I don't have any jacks.'_

"Don't lie to me. Hand them over."

Neo rolled her eyes and slid the three jacks over to her girlfriend.

She turned to Penny.

_'Can you report her for abuse?'_

Penny glanced at Ciel, who sighed sufferingly.

"Just ignore her, Penny."

"Okay, Friend Ciel."

Neo stuck her tongue out at the two girls.

_'This is discrimination.'_

"How?!" Ciel cried.

_'You're making fun of me for my disability.'_

"No, we're making fun of you because you're an idiot," Ciel said, drawing a card.

Winter glanced at her girlfriend, raising an eyebrow just slightly.

"Friend Ciel has instructed me to ignore Neo. You don't need to be worried, Girlfriend Winter!" Penny said happily.

Neo snickered and Ciel kicked her under the table.

The criminal rubbed at her shins. They were starting to bruise from the continued kicking Ciel was giving them.

"Why can't we be more like them?" Ciel asked, gesturing at Pyrrha and Ilia.

Pyrrha was giggling with her girlfriend, who was playfully attempting to steal her cards to look at them.

Pyrrha gave Ilia a quick kiss on the lips, halting Ilia instantly, and pulled away, hiding her cards in her pocket.

"That's cheating!" Ilia said, but she was smiling like an idiot.

"My apologies. Let me make it up to you," Pyrrha said, leaning down to kiss her again.

Winter snapped her fingers in front of the happy couple.

"Hey, what did we say about making out at the table?" she asked, glaring at them.

"Not to," both said as one.

Pyrrha and Ilia glanced at each other before giggling and turning back to their cards.

_'Gorgeous, if you wanted something like that, you wouldn't have picked me.'_

Ciel raised an eyebrow.

"Then enlighten me. Why **did** I pick you?"

_'I'm really not sure. My current guess is that you have some sort of brain damage, but that can't be right, because you're far too brilliant to have anything wrong upstairs.'_

Neo tapped Ciel's head for emphasis.

Ciel laughed, rolling her eyes, and moved closer, connecting their lips.

Winter put two fingers in her water cup, flicking the liquid at Neo and Ciel.

They both reacted in surprise, trying to block their faces from the attack.

 _'That was rude,'_ Neo signed.

Ciel was inclined to agree and was about to say as much when a loud _slam_ sounded from the front door.

They all stood instantly, preparing for an attack.

Ilia put herself in front of Pyrrha, drawing Lightning Lash protectively. Winter grabbed her rapier and held it in front of herself, eyes turning focused and emotionless, though she moved slightly closer to Penny. Neo grabbed Ciel around the waist with one arm, pushing her backwards and drawing her parasol, looking for any attack.

A red blur shot toward them, and Neo swung her parasol against it.

Ruby appeared on the floor, sprawled out and looking slightly dizzy.

"Friend Ruby!" Penny cried in shock, hurrying to the young team leader's side and helping her to her feet.

"What's wrong?" Winter asked. There had to be a reason for the hasty entrance.

"We were worried that Salem had sent an attack," Ruby said, still looking dizzy as she stood in front of them.

Her teammates vaulted up the stairs and Blake grabbed Ruby around the waist, holding her gently and supportively.

"You okay?" Blake asked quietly.

Ruby nodded, looking up at her with a lovestruck smile.

"I am now."

Ruby winked, poorly, and Blake sighed.

"Did Yang tell you to say that?"

Ruby nodded slowly.

"Don't take flirting advice from your sister."

"What?!" Yang cried.

"Ruby's better at flirting than you," Weiss agreed.

Yang looked highly offended and was about to disagree, but was cut off.

"What happened while we were gone?" Oscar asked.

"We played some cards, watched some TV. Nothing much," Ciel translated for Neo.

"Wish we could say the same," Nora muttered, holding her side.

Jaune grabbed her hand.

"Do you need me to use my semblance more?" he asked, a thrill shooting through him at the words. His _semblance_! He had a _semblance_!

Nora shook her head, moving closer to him.

"No, but you could carry me," she said dramatically.

"Nora," Ren said levelly.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Jaune's my boyfriend too now. You can't stop me from messing with him," Nora said.

Jaune blushed, a goofy grin on his face.

Team CFVY hurried through the door, drawing their weapons.

"What's going on?" Coco asked worriedly.

"Nothing! We were just worried!" Ruby said.

The team leader had gotten her balance back, but she had moved to stand in front of Blake, holding the faunus' arms around her.

Fox threw his hands up in the air.

"You're telling me that we ran all the way here, after fighting the White Fang, and it was _nothing_!"

Ruby nodded.

"Unbelievable," he muttered.

"What happened on your end?" Winter asked.

Yang held up the lamp excitedly.

"We got the relic!"

"And we found the Spring Maiden! Well, we found her, then we lost her, and now she's dead to us, but we know who the Spring Maiden is!" Ruby said.

Blake tried to calm her girlfriend by resting her chin on the top of her girlfriend's head.

That just made Ruby giggle and lean back further against Blake.

"That's... good?" Pyrrha asked.

"Jaune unlocked his semblance!" Nora cried proudly, giving her boyfriend a fond smile.

He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"That's amazing, Jaune!" Pyrrha said happily.

"Yeah!" Ilia agreed.

"What is it?" Pyrrha questioned.

"I can amplify Aura," Jaune said.

"That makes sense, for a person with as much Aura as you have," Pyrrha said, giving him a kind smile.

Blake turned to face Ruby, unable to detach herself from her overly affectionate girlfriend.

"What do you four plan to do now?" she asked.

The four glanced at each other before Coco spoke.

"Probably join you guys."

"Oh, dust, you've got _so_ much to catch up on," Nora said.

"Yes. Such as Yang's mother, Salem, the Maidens-"

Nora cut Ren off, waving her hand at him to make him stop talking.

"Weiss' sister is dating a robot," she glanced at an irate Winter, "who has her own Aura. You remember Neopolitan, the girl who worked for Roman Torchwick?" Coco nodded slowly, "Well, she's dating Ciel, this total goody-toe-shoes! You already knew about Ilia and Pyrrha.... Oh! Ren and I are dating Jaune! And each other!"

There was a moment of silence.

"Ah, yes, how could I forget the most important information," Ren said levelly, "gossip."

Nora nodded excitedly, and Jaune tried not to shake his head in amusement, a bright red blush on his face.

Coco was suddenly grinning.

"Can you tell me all of that again, but slower and with _far_ more detail?" Coco asked.

Nora nodded enthusiastically and hurried forward to explain it again, though if anything she spoke faster this time.

Velvet sighed at her girlfriend's antics, turning her gaze back to the rest of the room's occupants. Her gaze landed on Neopolitan, and she realized that Fox and Yatsu were also watching her distrustfully.

"You don't need to worry about Neo," Ciel said with a wave of her hand, "she won't hurt anyone."

"Can you be sure of that?" Yatsu asked.

"Definitely. She's a good-well, I wouldn't go _that_ far. She's an okay person, most days, and she wouldn't hurt anyone here. Mostly because of me."

Neo nodded with an innocent smile, holding her hands, and her parasol, behind her back as she tilted her head to the side just slightly to appear even more innocent.

Ren watched everyone with a slightly disinterested expression.

"Where are we going next?"

Ozpin sighed, rubbing his temple.

"I'm not quite sure yet."

Before Ren could question him further, the door was slammed open, once again.

Maria stalked inside, limping slightly, and growled out her next words.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that they were TELEPORTING BACK?!"

Ruby grimaced, curling closer to Blake and almost letting herself be engulfed in her embrace.

"Sorry!"


	19. Someone's a Little........

The group, which was now an amalgamation of students from both Atlas and Beacon, military personnel, undying entities, drunkards, criminals, Maidens, robots with souls, and farm people, had a day before they were supposed to leave for Atlas Academy. The plan was to sneak in, undetected, and grab the Staff of Creation, which Ozpin knew for sure was not in the vault, as, in his previous life, he had seen Ironwood using it to generate endless power to help Atlas stay afloat. It was only a matter of time before Salem realized this and they would be too late to save the relic.

At the moment, team CFVY was discussing everything that had been revealed to them the night before, holed up in one of the two bedrooms. Ciel and Neo were hanging out with Penny and Winter, because Penny had discovered the concept of double dates via a sarcastic comment from Neo, and she was now making the four of them have one, even if it was in this house with no food or any date-like things. Nora had dragged Jaune and Ren onto the couch and the three were having a spontaneous makeout session. Because of their teammates, Ilia and Pyrrha had gone outside. They were joined by team RWBY and Oscar.

Yang was attempting to flirt with Blake, to show the faunus that she could do so more successfully than her sister, and Weiss was watching the two with a mixture of fondness and suffering.

"Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you three," Weiss muttered.

Yang and Blake glanced at her, rolling their eyes. Ruby didn't seem to notice, because she was talking to Oscar, the two in an intense conversation about the fight yesterday and the plan they had for their return to Atlas.

Ruby laughed at something Oscar said, and the young boy blushed, rubbing the back of his neck in an awkward manner.

Ever since having met Ruby, Oscar had felt a certain sort of... romantic feeling toward her, and he really couldn't be blamed for his interest in her.

It wasn't like he knew that she was in a committed relationship with two of her teammates.

Despite the perfectly good reasons for him to entitled to his feelings and his interest in Ruby, Blake and Weiss both paused what they were doing, glancing over at their girlfriend and her new friend with narrowed eyes.

"Weiss?" Pyrrha asked.

The former heiress jumped in shock.

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha, what were you saying?" she asked.

The Maiden shook her head with a slight smile on her face.

"If it bothers you, just talk to her."

Ilia nodded sagely, staring at Blake with a meaningful look in her eyes.

"I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Weiss said, though her gaze had slid back to Ruby and Oscar.

Weiss huffed as Oscar moved closer to Ruby subtly, his arm brushing against hers. Ruby didn't notice, giving him a kind smile before continuing their discussion.

The former heiress grabbed Blake's hand and dragged her away from a confused Yang.

Yang let out a sound of protest, but Weiss shushed her with a look.

Blake followed Weiss without complaint. Weiss sat down at Ruby's left side, as Oscar had taken up her right one, expecting Blake to join her. Instead, the cat faunus moved behind the bench they sat on, leaning against the back of it and wrapping her arms around Ruby's front lazily.

"Hey," Blake said lowly.

Ruby jumped, looking between her two girlfriends with a surprised expression.

"Hey, Blakey!" Ruby said, leaning back against the cat faunus.

Weiss set her hand on Ruby's leg, a little ways up from the knee, and caused their team leader to look at her with a slightly confused, yet excited, expression. She was always excited when Weiss initiated affection, especially in public, considering the former heiress was so hesitant to do so.

Oscar moved to the side slightly as Blake's elbow 'accidentally' hit him in the side.

Ruby turned back to face Oscar, intent to continue their conversation, but the boy seemed hesitant.

"Would you like me to leave?" he asked awkwardly.

 _Yes,_ Blake and Weiss thought, but they didn't say anything.

Ruby frowned in confusion, shaking her head.

"What? No! Why would you say that?"

Oscar gestured at Blake and Weiss before speaking.

"It looks like your teammates want your attention."

Weiss and Blake glanced at one another, sharing a slightly smug look.

Ruby shook her head, idly running a hand up and down Blake's arm and putting her hand on top of Weiss'.

"I think they just missed me. I missed them too," she said, giving the two girls a fond smile.

Oscar nodded awkwardly before starting up the conversation again.

After a minute, Ruby glanced back at Blake, who was still leaning over to wrap her arms around Ruby, head resting on her shoudler.

"Do you want to sit down?" the team leader asked with concern.

Blake tried to keep herself from smirking, because she'd been waiting for this (unlike Yang, she actually could flirt).

"That's very kind of you, Ruby," she said.

Before her teammate could say anything, Blake looped her arms around Ruby's waist and lifted her into the air. Blake jumped over the bench and took a seat on it, setting Ruby down in between her legs. Ruby seemed surprised for a moment, but when Blake set her head back down on Ruby's shoulder, she relaxed, smiling broadly before turning back to Oscar. Her hand was still holding Weiss' own, which was now set on her knee once again.

Oscar seemed more awkward now, growing more so every minute.

"I'm... going to go grab a drink of water. You want anything?" he asked.

"Maybe cookies if there's any in the kitchen!"

Oscar stood, but Blake spoke before he could leave.

"Oscar, you don't have to get her cookies," Blake said, reaching into her jacket pocket, "because I have some."

Ruby grinned and spun her head around in excitement as Blake pulled out the ziploc bag filled with cookies. She took it from Blake's hands, thanking her gleefully, and the cat faunus watched Oscar go with a slight smirk.

Blake would never threaten or hurt anyone for flirting with her girlfriend. She could just do it better. And with Weiss here too, they could both do it.

Weiss side eyed Blake with an impressed look on her face. The faunus smiled back at her, pulling closer to Ruby.

Once Ruby had finished her cookies, in under a minute, she turned to face Weiss and Blake.

"Is something wrong? Was Oscar right? Did you want to talk to me alone?"

Weiss and Blake shook their heads.

"Can't we just want to spend time with our girlfriend?" Weiss asked, moving over slowly to set her head on Ruby's shoulder. The team leader grinned in excitement, hesitantly reaching out to wrap one arm around Weiss' waist. When the former heiress didn't seem to acknowledge the contact, other than by pulling almost unnoticeably close, Ruby let herself grin enthusiastically.

When Oscar came back, he sat down further from Ruby, taking a sip from his water cup awkwardly.

The four sat in silence before Oscar made an excuse to leave (something about Ozpin wanting to talk to Qrow).

When he left, Weiss and Blake shared a smug smirk.

Yang sat down beside Ruby and Blake, staring at her teammates with a raised eyebrow.

"So Ruby gets all of the attention just because someone was flirting with her? If that's all it takes, I'll make sure to get flirted with more," Yang said.

"Flirting? Who was flirting with me?" Ruby asked.

"Nobody," Weiss said quickly.

"Oscar," Yang said.

"What? Oscar wasn't flirting with me. We were just talking."

"He was flirting with you," Pyrrha said, not looking up from the book she was reading.

Ruby took a moment to think before she grinned, glancing at her girlfriends.

"You were jealous!"

"No!" Weiss denied.

"Yes," Blake said, putting a gentle kiss on Ruby's neck and smirking when the team leader giggled, squirming in her arms.

"No need to be jealous! I love you two, and only you two!"

"Thanks, Rubes," Yang said.

Ruby smacked her on the arm.

"I meant romantically!"

Yang snickered.

"If it makes you feel better, I can tell him we're dating."

"You don't have to tell him anything," Weiss said, crossing her arms with a slight blush.

"That would make me feel much better," Blake said.

-

It was about half an hour later, when Ruby had finally detached herself from her two girlfriends, and she had tracked Oscar down.

"Hey, I'm sorry about earlier," she said.

Oscar jumped.

"Huh? About what?"

"Blake and Weiss got a little possessive and jealous," Ruby said, "so they came over and interrupted."

Oscar looked confused.

"What? Why?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck.

"We're dating. All three of us. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. I'm dating Blake and Weiss, who are also dating each other, and my sister."

Oscar stared at her, eyes wide.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

Oscar flushed.

"I'm sorry if I made things awkward. I didn't know you three, or four, I guess, were...," he trailed off.

Ruby shook her head, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't apologize! It's alright! Just so you know, I'd go out with you if it weren't for them. Not to say that they aren't awesome! I love them to death! It's just... if I'd never met them, I'd probably go out with you."

Oscar gave her a small smile.

"Thank you, Ruby, that's very sweet of you. And I'm very happy for you and you're girlfriends."

Ruby grinned and gave him a quick hug before racing off, wondering if she could maybe get a bit more affection from her jealous girlfriends.


	20. Off the Rails

The trip to Atlas was going to be a nerve wracking experience, because their wanted posters were everywhere. As Neo had told them, the life of a criminal was difficult (though she had described it as an exhilarating game of cat and mouse). A group as large as theirs was inherently suspicious, so they had decided to split up. Team CFVY was the only group that didn't have any wanted criminals with them, so they were obviously the first to enter the train. To give their friends a chance, they caused a distraction.

Coco had sunk into her fashionista persona, and she was already complaining about a myriad of different things on the train. She'd distracted the first guard, who happened to be a very frustrating, and pompous, Huntsmen. The second Huntsman guard was busy with Fox, who was bumping into things and asking for assistance due to his blindness.

While the two Huntsmen were occupied, Neo grabbed onto Ciel, throwing open a window and sneaking into the train.

"Neo, we _have_ tickets. We just need to get inside!" Ciel hissed.

_'Well, you insisted we pay for tickets, so we paid for tickets. They got their money, and we get to take a train ride. They didn't specify how we have to get on board.'_

"They literally did specify."

_'You say potato, I sign patato.'_

Ciel sighed.

Maria limped onto the train, distracting several of the occupants of the train. Team RWBY scurried on board, putting their tickets in the machine and taking their seats. They closed the door behind them and took their seats, sighing in relief.

Team JNIPR almost got caught because of Nora, but Jaune put a hand over her mouth and dragged her into their room before she could speak.

Winter strode onto the train naturally, as if she belonged, and Penny followed her enthusiastically, making Winter glad that the guards were distracted, because Penny would obviously draw their attention if they weren't.

Oscar was able to just walk on, as nobody knew who the young boy was, but Qrow was forced to fly through an open window that Ruby had given him.

Let large group let out a collective sigh of relief, relaxing in their seats.

"I hate being wanted," Ruby groaned.

"That's kind of the point," Blake said.

Ruby gave her an eye roll and slumped in her seat.

In the JNIPR room, Nora was excitedly bouncing up and down in her seat.

"Maybe we can go to the beach!" she said enthusiastically.

In her mind, she imagined Ren and Jaune in their swimsuits, and she smirked, looking at her boyfriends.

Jaune blushed and Ren raised an eyebrow.

"And they complained about us," Ilia muttered to Pyrrha, leaning against her side.

In the team RWBY room, Ruby let out a huff of frustration, looking at her sister.

"What's wrong, Rubes?" Yang asked.

"It seems like our whole relationship has just been us running from different people and fighting for our lives," she said, "maybe I just want something more... normal."

"Ruby, our relationship is anything but normal," Weiss said, rolling her eyes.

"I know that!" Ruby said, throwing her hands up in the air, "But we never have the chance to do... normal dating things! We don't get to go on dates, nobody can tell that we're together, and I have to wait for the end of our next death defying adventure to end before I get the chance to kiss you two!"

Blake set her book down, leaning closer to Ruby.

"Well, we can't change some of those things," she smirked and put her hand on Ruby's leg, "but we can take advantage of the time we have."

Ruby couldn't find it in her to complain anymore as Blake closed the distance between them, kissing her gently. She put her hand on the wall beside Ruby, leaning into the embrace as Ruby excitedly put her arms around Blake's waist.

Weiss turned to Yang, blushing slightly.

The blond smirked and leaned closer to her.

"You jealous?"

"I don't have to be. I've got you right here."

Weiss grabbed onto the collar of Yang's shirt and pulled her closer. Yang seemed surprised but definitely not disappointed, humming into the kiss and letting her hands wander to the former heiress' hair. She loved to mess it up when they kissed and listen to Weiss complain about it for hours (but she never fixed it afterwards).

Just as Weiss was pulling away from Yang, internally wondering if she should grab Blake or Ruby next, the train jolted to a stop.

Weiss grabbed onto Yang to steady herself, knowing that her girlfriend wouldn't go flying at the sudden stop. Ruby let out a squeak of shock, looping her legs around Blake to stop herself from falling over. The faunus barely kept her balance with Ruby's added weight, grabbing onto the wall to keep from falling onto the ground.

"What was that?" Blake asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Weiss muttered.

"See?! This is what I'm talking about!" Ruby groaned.

Team RWBY hurried to their feet, grabbing their weapons.

Yang threw the window open and climbed out, followed by the other three.

They got on top of the train, finding that Qrow was already there, and raised their weapons, watching the myriad of Grimm that were attacking the two Huntsmen that were supposed to be defending the train.

They got there just in time to see one of the Huntsmen get picked up by a Manticore and get eaten alive.

"Dee!" the other Huntsmen cried in vain.

"What's the plan, Ruby?" Blake asked.

"Don't let anyone else die!" Ruby cried, turning Crescent Rose into its scythe form.

Oscar looked out of the window to see the Grimm, barely avoiding one of them as they flew by, and raced out.

Ozpin offered to take control, but Oscar instantly rejected the idea, shaking his head. As he exited his room, he bumped into team JNIPR

"What's going on?" Jaune asked.

Before Oscar could respond, the train jolted once more.

The six of them race out to the top of the train, finding the large group of Grimm attacking team RWBY and Qrow. They joined their friends instantly.

Meanwhile, team CFVY stood further down the train, protecting the front of it. Coco gave Velvet a fond smile as she drew her weapon, instantly copying Yang's and using the gauntlets to shoot a Grimm in the face.

Inside the train, Neo spun her parasol in her hand, opening the train window.

 _'Wait here, Gorgeous,'_ she signed.

"I'm not letting you go out there alone," Ciel said.

Neo threw herself onto the top of the train and held her hand down with an expression that obviously meant _'if you must'_ on her face.

Ciel grabbed her girlfriend's hand and let herself be pulled up, joining team CFVY at the front of the train.

Ciel saw her partner flying overhead, taking down Grimm with her swords, which were now glowing a bright green color, perhaps due to her new Maiden powers, but Ciel couldn't be certain.

Winter was defending Penny from her attackers through the use of summons, but she wasn't paying attention to the Manticore that was swooping down behind her.

Ciel raced forward, stabbing the Grimm through the chest and watching it burst into the ashy substance that Grimm always turned into when killed.

Neo joined her, the two defending Winter as she helped Penny take down the myriad of attackers nearby.

Back at the end of the train, Qrow spun to face the celebrating Huntsman, wondering how he could be so happy when his partner had just died.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Qrow called.

He didn't respond, or perhaps he did, but Qrow couldn't hear it over Nora's yelling.

"Why is it always something?!"

"How can I help?" Oscar asked.

"You can get that idiot to shut off the turrets. They're just drawing the Grimm toward the passengers!" Qrow yelled.

"Right!" Oscar called, racing down the train toward where he had seen the Huntsman, dodging the Grimm that swooped down to attack him.

"Stop! You've gotta shut the turrets off!"

"Are you crazy? No way!" the Hunstman cried.

The turret took down a Grimm.

"Yes! Another one down!" he celebrated.

Oscar put a hand on his shoulder.

"Stop! We have to lure the Grimm to the back."

"What does it matter if they're dead?" the Huntsman screamed, shoving Oscar off of him.

Suddenly, the Grimm around them started to disappear suspiciously.

"Where are they going?"

Oscar's eyes turned to the front of the train.

"TUNNEL!!" Coco shouted. Oscar echoed her to the back of the train.

"Huh?" the Huntsman asked.

Oscar slid across the top of the train, throwing himself into the space between train cars. The Huntsman followed him, but screamed as his arm was hit against the side of the tunnel.

Team RWBY and JNIPR hurried to the back of the train, dropping down into the train car just as the tunnel covered the end of the train.

They moved forward through the train, taking advantage of the time they had in the tunnel.

"I said, turn those damn things off!" Qrow shouted, shoving the Huntsman against the wall and making him gasp in pain.

"Those things are keeping us alive!"

"Us, sure, but they're putting the passengers in danger!" Qrow shouted.

"I'm the one they hired for this job, okay?! I'm in charge here!"

"Forgive me if I'm not exactly reassured," Qrow growled.

"Please just shut off the turrets," Ruby said.

"Trust us, we know what we're doing," Jaune said, setting a hand on the Huntsman's arm and boosting his Aura so that he could heal himself

"Fine."

"Ren, could you use your Semblance to mask everyone on this train? With the guns off and emotions hidden, they might lose track of us!" Nora asked.

"Hm, I never attempted to affect this many people," Ren said.

"Well, you've never had Jaune's help before," Pyrrha said encouragingly.

"He could amplify your Aura!" Ilia said.

"Yeah, that's an alright plan," Qrow said.

"Don't look so worried, Ren. You can totally do this!" Nora said encouragingly.

 _May I?_ Ozpin asked in Oscar's head.

Oscar's eyes shifted colors.

"I'm afraid there's one complication... The Grimm are also attracted to this," he said, tapping the relic on his belt.

"What's that?" the Huntsman asked.

"None of your business. Oz, are you serious?" Qrow said.

"Why wouldn't you tell us that?!" Yang snapped.

"I-"

"It doesn't matter right now," Ruby said.

Yang crossed her arms.

"Every second we're on board this train, we're putting everyone else in danger. Get the passengers to the front cars, you'll still mask the emotions and kill the turrets... we just can't come with you. If we cut the back cars with us and the Relic on them, we can deal with the Grimm. You just make sure the rest of the train makes it safely to Argus."

"Let me come with you," Pyrrha said.

"No! You're too valuable to risk," Ozpin said.

Pyrrha recoiled slightly, and Ilia put one hand on her back.

"This is our only option," Ruby said.

"Only if you'll promise you'll meet us there," Jaune responded.

"Promise."

Team JNIPR shepherded the passengers to the front half of the train, but failed to see Maria as she hid in the side of the room.

Team RWBY, Oscar, and Qrow hurried outside.

Blake decoupled the front half of the train and the back.

"Now!" Ruby shouted.

Nora heard her and gestured at her boyfriends, which caused them to combine their semblances and grey out the entirety of the front half of the train.

Ruby spun to face Qrow, finding that he was fighting against a large Sphinx. It was gaining ground on him and he barely defended himself.

"We need to ground it!" Ruby shouted.

"On it! Yang!" Blake cried.

Yang spun and raced toward her girlfriend. Blake threw her weapon outward and Yang punched it, sending it wrapping around the Grimm. She continued this pattern a few more times before grabbing the weapon and throwing it to the ground, embedding it in the train.

Weiss summoned glyphs and froze the wings of the Grimm. Ruby and Qrow spun their scythes together and chopped off the frozen wings before turning to the body of the creature. They bisected its middle, but not before it could let out another fireball that broke the tracks in front of the train.

As the train went off the rails, Weiss summoned black glyphs to protect her teammates from being thrown off the train as it slammed against the ground.

"Is everyone okay?" Qrow asked.

Ruby was helping Weiss up while Blake helped Yang climb out of the snow.

"I'm fine," Weiss said.

"Yeah," Blake agreed.

"Mhm," Ruby and Yang said.

"Still alive!"

Everyone looked up and watched Maria walking out of the train.

"That sure was a close one, huh?"


	21. The Question

Yang was stalking back and forth, muttering to herself in irritation. Ruby seemed frustrated as well, joining her sister.

"Can't ever have time to ourselves," Ruby muttered.

"And now we're _stranded_ in the snow, our entire party already headed to Atlas, and we're wanted criminals!" Yang growled

"Yang, knock it off, will ya? If we lose our cool now, we'll just be inviting even more Grimm," Qrow snapped.

"Does that even matter? Apparently, we've been attracting Grimm ever since we left Haven," Blake said.

"Oh, and _how_ could I forget about that?" she turned to Oscar, "What happened to 'no more lies and half truths?'"

"Yeah, I think it's time we got an explanation...," Oscar said, his eyes turning a brilliant shade of yellow.

" _I did not lie_ to you...," Ozpin said.

"Well you _certainly_ didn't tell us everything about the Relic," Weiss said, crossing her arms.

"Please, now is not the time," Ozpin said.

"No, we're past that! I wanna know why you're _still_ not telling us everything!" Yang snapped.

"It is true that the Grimm are attracted to the Relics. It's faint, but undeniable. I believe it has to do with their origin, but I'm not entirely sure. Regardless, I feared that making you all aware would only add anxiety and negativity. It seemed like the safer option."

"You know, I'm getting real tired of people choosing what's best for me," Weiss growled.

"Is that why you chose to lie to everyone about Lionheart too?" Yang asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I believed the Kingdom of Mistral deserved better than the truth. And I believed Leonardo deserved to be remembered for his lifetime of service, and not for the unfortunate missteps he made in his final years," Ozpin said.

"Missteps?!" Yang cried.

"What Professor Lionheart did was reprehensible. I am not here to argue differently, but does one lapse in judgment truly negate all of his good? Do we not all have regrets? You may have met Professor Lionheart, but you never met the man he was before Salem found him."

"Look, we're supposed to be in this together. You can trust us! We're not gonna turn our backs on you," said Weiss.

" **Do you really think Leo was the first?!** " Ozpin screamed.

Everyone, even Qrow, stopped to look at him.

"That he didn't say those _exact_ same words to me? I'm sorry, but you have to understand that my behaviors are backed by experience. I'm not saying that I have reason to think you will betray me. I'm saying that I have reasons for the things that I do, the secrets I keep, the reason I...," he suddenly stopped, eyes wide in realization, "Where's the Relic?"

"Right here," Ruby held it out with her hands, "It got scattered in the crash."

"Please, hand it over."

Ozpin reached out his hands for it, but Ruby hesitated.

"So all those times you talked about having faith in humanity, that was just for everyone else?"

Ozpin sighed.

"That's not what I meant to suggest. Miss Rose, the Relic is a powerful item and I simply feel as though it is my burden to bear."

"But, you said it couldn't do anything right now," said Ruby.

"Why does it matter who carries it?" Blake said, stepping in front of Ruby protectively.

"I need you to listen to me-"

Ozpin suddenly stopped, his hand frozen in mid air.

"Oz?" Qrow asked.

"Hurry... he's... trying to stop you!" Oscar cried, fighting for control.

"Stop her from what?" Yang asked.

"He's afraid... you'll find out what he's... hiding!" Oscar finally collapsed to the ground in exertion.

"Her name is Jinn. Say her name to summon her," he said.

"Her name?" Ruby asked.

The wind around them picked up around them, swirling the few remaining leaves around them, the snow picking up.

"Jinn?" Ruby asked.

The wind and the snow stopped.

"What?" Qrow asked, shocked.

The relic floated out of Ruby's hand and a being appeared in front of them.

"Wonderful," she said.

Everyone stared at Jinn in awe.

"Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?"

-

Emerald limped out of the bar, comforted by the fact that the woman, Lil' Miss, would find the annoying little brats for her.

-

"I am Jinn, a being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. I've been graced with the ability to answer three questions every one hundred years. You're in luck, as I am still able to answer-"

"That's enough!" Ozpin screamed, having just gained some semblance of control over Oscar's body.

"... two questions this era."

Two questions? Oz had told them that there weren't any left this era.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, old man," Jinn said.

"Ruby, please... Don't," Ozpin pleaded.

"Hey," Qrow said, stepping forward.

Immediately, her teammates grow defensive, each stepping in between Ruby and her uncle.

"Do whatever you think is right, kiddo," Qrow said.

"Jinn?" Ruby turned to face the woman, "What is Ozpin hiding from us?"

" **NOOOOOOO!** " Ozpin screamed.


	22. Trails Lead Somewhere

"Salem can't be killed... you all heard her too, right?" Yang asked.

"I-" Ozpin was cut off.

"There was _so_ much you hadn't told us! How could you think that was okay?!" Yang yelled, enraged.

"Professor... What _is_ your plan to defeat Salem?" Ruby asked.

"I... don't have one..."

Qrow stood and punched Ozpin.

"No one wanted me... I was cursed... I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world... I thought I was finally doing some good..."

"But, you are!" Ozpin said tearfully.

"Meeting you... was the worst luck of my life..."

"Maybe you're right..."

Ozpin's eyes glowed and Oscar brought up a hand to hold his cheek, which was obviously stinging from Qrow's punch.

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

"He's... gone."

"That bastard! Tell him we're not done yet!" Yang cried.

"No, this is different. He's gone. It-- It's like he's locked himself deep inside my head. Our head?" he grunted and held his head in pain, "I hate this! I want it to stop!"

"He just left us?" Weiss asked.

"What are we gonna do now?" Blake asked.

Yang growled in anger.

"Enough! We need to get move on. It'll be dark before we know it, and every one of you is spewing negativity!" Maria paused to help Oscar up with her cane, "There's a trail over there, trails usually lead somewhere."

"But-"

"No buts! I understand that you're upset. Honestly, I'm still coming to terms with the fact that this is humanity's second time around. But, if we don't move, we die. And I'll be damned if I've lived this long just to die out here in the cold!"

"She's right. Come on," Ruby said, though she sounded crestfallen.

Ruby walked over to Oscar and handed him his cane.

"I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" Oscar muttered.

"Of course not. You're your own person," Ruby said.

"Don't lie to him, Ruby," Qrow took a sip from his flask, "We're better than that."

-

The snow picked up and they looked up at the sky.

"Doesn't look like this is gonna let up," Qrow said.

"I just wanna get to Atlas and be done," Blake mumbled.

"Let's hope we _don't_ have to walk all the way there," Weiss said.

"I thought trails led somewhere," Yang said sarcastically, looking at Maria.

"Do you have nothing better to do than to harass a defenseless old lady?"

"Everyone, quiet. Do you hear that?" Blake asked.

The squealing of gates caused them all to look at the nearby barn that they'd missed in the heavy snow.

"Well, at least one good thing happened today," Blake muttered.

"It looks abandoned," Weiss muttered.

"It's still better than this," Ruby said.

"Come on, I think we could all use some rest," said Qrow.

They all headed to the large barn house, their heads down in defeat.


	23. Apathy

"Storm's cleared up for now. We should be able to leave by morning," Qrow said.

"That's good," said Ruby.

"No... I don't have a good feeling about this place, especially with me around..."

Ruby glanced down at the wine bottle at Qrow's feet.

"Are you... okay?"

"Sure. Tell everyone to get some sleep. I'll wake you guys up just before sunrise."

Across the room, Maria sat down and opened a book. Oscar glanced at her.

"Is that a diary?" he asked.

"The head of this household, Bartleby. Apparently, he and several other families founded this little settlement to try and live on their own. It sounds like it worked, at least for a spell."

"Grimm?" Oscar asked.

"Just one of many hardships. Slowed down their farming, made everything harder... It's a shame, really. He seemed like quite the ambitious fellow, always thinking of new schemes to overcome the odds."

Ruby walked back into the room.

"Hey guys. Qrow said we should get some sleep. We're gonna head out early tomorrow," she said.

"Thank goodness," Blake said.

"Hmph, the last thing you'll catch me doing is letting some kid tell me what to do," she continued in a mocking voice, raising it to a pitch that almost mimicked Ruby's, "'Go to bed!'"

She stayed seated, reading by the firelight.

-

By the next morning, Qrow was sprawled out on the couch, another bottle of wine on the ground beside him.

"Close the window," Weiss mumbled in her sleep, curling up closer to Yang, seeking her warmth.

Yang was holding Weiss around the waist with one arm, Blake curled up on her other side, head on her shoulder.

Ruby had been laying beside Weiss, but had gotten up, which was likely why the former heiress found herself cold now.

Ruby shook her uncle.

"Uncle Qrow. Come on, get up."

"Leave me alone..."

"We overslept."

Qrow continued to sleep.

Ruby growled and reached down, snatching onto the wine bottle and throwing it against the wall.

Qrow shot up, startled.

"What? Oh, right, sunrise.

He looked around, and Ruby stared at him, her expression softening. She leaned forward, hugging him.

"You know, you can talk to me about stuff. Yang too."

"Let's just get outta here," he said, hugging her back.

-

Yang had found a beaten down motorcycle in the other building, and she had dragged it outside. It wasn't in great shape, but it could get them to where they were supposed to met up with the rest of their party.

Oscar and Blake were sitting on the porch steps, and Ruby noticed that all of her teammates seemed to be sluggish today.

"Can we just go back to bed?" Oscar asked.

"If we're all so tired, maybe we should make breakfast?" Blake suggested.

"You wanna make it?" Oscar questioned.

"Not really."

Ruby and Qrow walked outside.

"You guys got the bike ready?" Ruby asked.

Yang nodded, gesturing at the bike vaguely.

"Well, it's done now. So let's hook this thing up and-" Qrow had set his foot on the trailer, and the tire on the other side went flat.

Qrow groaned.

"You people are just beacons for bad luck, aren't you?" Maria commented.

Qrow walked over to a nearby fence post and sat down, frustrated. Yang did the same.

"I'm starting to think the universe just doesn't want us getting to Atlas," Yang muttered.

"It's just a flat tire, I'm sure there's a spare," Ruby said, sighing at her pessimistic sister.

"It's not just that, it's everything. Storms, crashes, monsters...," she sighed, "I'm so tired..."

"Me too. It feels like we're always having to fight to get by," Blake agreed.

"Yeah. But that's what we signed up for," Ruby said.

"We signed up to try and save the world, not just... delay the inevitable," Oscar said.

"Last night, I... I couldn't stop thinking - why are we even going to Atlas?" Weiss asked.

"Weiss, we have to," Ruby said.

"Why? Oz hid the behind giant doors under enormous doors, but... how long would it take Salem to find a lamp in the middle of nowhere?" Yang asked.

"What? The Grimm might-"

Yang cut her sister off.

"They'd find it eventually, sure, but bury it or just throw it down the well, it would take years. It might not even happen in our lifetime. But we could be done with it now."

Ruby detached the relic from her belt, looking at it.

"I am... really... tired...," Ruby said.

Ruby held the relic over the well to the side, her eyes looking dazed. She considered something for a moment before her eyes widened. Something was in the well! In her haste to bring the relic back to her, she dropped it in.

"No! No! No! I didn't mean to!" she cried.

Her teammates looked at her, dazed.

"Ruby, it's okay," Weiss comforted her girlfriend.

"No! No, there's something down there! I saw it, it was looking at me!"

Ruby looked down the well again, only to find that the glowing red eyes were gone.

Yang put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. You just said you're tired. It's probably nothing. Now let's go."

Ruby swatted her sister's hand off of her.

"What's wrong with you?! We can't just leave, we have to go down there! We have to get the lamp back! Oh, what was I thinking?!" she facepalmed, groaning.

"All we have to do is fix this trailer. Hey, farm boy, check the shed for a spare," Qrow said.

"I'm not leaving without the lamp!!" Ruby shouted.

Her teammates stared at her, still slightly dazed.

Blake sighed.

"I'll go down with you...," she said.

"We'll go down together," Weiss said.

"Fine!" Qrow stood, "Get the stupid lamp. Oscar, fix the stupid tire."

"Where are you going?" Maria asked as Qrow walked past her.

"Where do you think?" he growled.

Ruby tried not to think about the wine cellar.

"Stupid...," she muttered, taking a seat and continuing to read another of the diaries.

-

Team RWBY stepped into the well, Ruby and Yang turning on their scroll flashlights to help them see.

"Maybe the current carried it away," Yang suggested.

They proceeded forward.

"Oh, come on, where is it?" Ruby moaned.

"Turn off your lights and just look for the glow?" Blake suggested.

"Okay...," Ruby said nervously.

"There," Blake said, pointing at something in front of them.

Ruby caught sight of the sight of the familiar blue glowing of the relic. She raced forward by herself, grabbing onto it and immediately clipping it to her side.

"Guys, I-"

She stopped, eyes widening as a large group of interconnected Grimm that all turned to face her. It writhed and wriggled on the ground, moving closer and closer to her, inch by inch. Ruby screamed.

Her teammates snapped out of their haze at the sound.

"Ruby?!" Yang cried.

Ruby raced back out to join her teammates, and they each raised their weapons to defend her.

The monstrous Grimm writhed out toward them.

"What is it?"

Ruby fired a round of bullets at the Grimm, causing it to let out a piercing cry. The four girls struggled to stand at the sound.

"What is that...?" Yang asked tiredly.

"My weapon... feels heavy...," Blake muttered.

"Run!"

Behind them, Maria appeared, hurrying toward them.

"Now!" she screamed.

"Go, go!" Ruby screamed to her team.

"This way!" Ruby called as she led her teammates through the twisting tunnels, and they all ran after her.

The Grimm let out another piercing cry, and they all slowed.

"I can't... do this... I can't...," Yang trailed off, exhausted.

Everyone fell as the Grimm let out another cry.

Maria strained forward and felt a set of stairs.

"An exit. An exit!" she cried.

Ruby crawled toward Weiss, shaking her.

"Come on!"

A weapon fell to the ground, creating a loud reverberation behind her.

Ruby turned and saw Blake laying on the ground, her weapon to the side, as the Grimm crawled toward her.

"Blake... get... up!" Ruby cried.

"It's fine...," Blake said dazedly.

"BLAAAAAKE!!!" Ruby shouted.

As she called out her girlfriend's name, her eyes started to blaze a brilliant shade of silver, illuminating the tunnel completely.

The Grimm screamed and moved backward.

This seemed to snap her teammates out of their daze, and Ruby threw herself forward, grabbing Blake and helping her to her feet.

The other three women got to their feet. Weiss and Yang glanced at Blake.

"I've got her!" Ruby cried.

Weiss ran up the stairs, pulling at the doors!"

"They're locked!"

"I've got it!" Yang cried, throwing herself up the stairs

Just as she was about to slam herself against the door, the Grimm recovered and let out another piercing shriek.

"No... No...!" Yang strained toward the doors.

Maria crawled toward Ruby.

"You have a family? Friends?"

"What?" Ruby asked, her gaze falling on the Grimm.

"Don't think about them. Think about the people who love you. Focus on the thought of them, the way they make you feel. Focus!" Maria cried.

Ruby closed her eyes and thought about her teammates. Her girlfriends, the loves of her life. Yang, the best sister she could ever ask for...

"Life... is beautiful. It is precious. And it must... be protected," Maria said.

Ruby sat up, eyes blazing silver and brilliant.

Yang punched the door open, firing a round from her gauntlet. She reached back and grabbed Weiss by the hand, pulling her through the door. Ruby helped Blake to her feet and dragged her through the door, Maria following after them.

"We're back in the house?" Blake asked, surprised.

Ruby's eyes landed on the bar, finding Qrow slumped over.

"Uncle Qrow, get up!" she called.

She ran over and shook him.

"Hey! Get off me! What are you doing here?" he slurred.

"We're leaving, you idiot! Come on!" Maria said, pulling him along.

"Not yet," Weiss said lowly.

"I'll stay with Weiss," Ruby said. She glanced at Blake, who was watching the cellar door, looking shocked.

"Yang-"

"Take Blake, I know."

She grabbed onto Blake's hand and tugged her out of the room, running out with Maria.

-

"Oscar! Oscar!" Yang screamed.

He looked up, shocked.

"Oscar! We have to go, now!"

-

"Hey... Hey! What are you doing?!"

Weiss was throwing wine bottles down the cellar.

Weiss set off a fire glyph, causing the Grimm and the alcohol to catch aflame.

"Now we can leave!" she said.

She helped Ruby grab Qrow by the arms, tugging him outside.

"Stop it! Stop! What's wrong with you?! What's...," he trailed off, eyes widening as he saw the Grimm.

-

Yang was driving the motorcycle, dragging the trailer behind her.

"The Apathy. They're not strong or ferocious. They drain your will to go on. Bartleby's estate was hemorrhaging money towards the end. He wanted to cut costs on Huntsman protection, but in order to do that, he needed everyone calm... always," Maria said.

""Managed to get two away from their pack. Hike back was miserable, but got the bastards in the cellar. Wife thinks I was out sealing the waterway entrance. I'll do it tomorrow and tell her the truth once these things take the edge off of everyone. I'm tired,"" Oscar said, quoting the diary.

"The next page proves that he did, but not before the rest of the pack followed their missing pair all the way home. My guess is they made their way beneath the estate through the water tunnels that Bartleby sealed up the next morning. Bartleby's plan worked. (takes the book from Oscar) No one was angry or sad or scared. No one was anything. And then... no one was left," Maria said.

"I'm... sorry for what I said... about giving up," Weiss said.

Yang stopped driving.

"Me too. We can't quit until the lamp is safe," she said.

"It's not your fault. It was those... things," Blake comforted.

"I should have known. The signs were all there, but I'd never seen an entire settlement withered away like that. I suppose my mind just isn't what it used to be," Maria said.

Ruby put her head on Blake's shoulder, holding her around the waist tightly. Weiss sat on the faunus' other side.

They'd almost lost her... and they'd never let her go again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blake almost getting killed and saying 'it's fine' is the ultimate mood honestly.


	24. Reunions

Ruby heard her scroll ping and she glanced down. She gasped.

"It's Jaune!"

Yang stopped her motorcycle in shock.

"How?" Weiss asked.

Ruby pulled her scroll closer to her friends, still holding Blake close to her.

She answered it.

"Uh, hello?"

"Ruby! Oh, thank you! I've been checking my Scroll for your signal since we made it to the city!" Jaune cried over the phone, his contact reading "vomit boy"

"The city? Wait..."

Yang pu lled the motorcycle forward over a hill, and she grinned.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived in Argus."

-

As team RWBY made their way through the town, a small figure in pink appeared.

"Cute! Boy! OZ!" Nora screamed.

Oscar looked over in confusion, only to be tackled into a hug by Nora.

"Oh, come here!" she said excitedly.

"Are you all okay?" Ren asked, hugging Yang.

"We were so worried!" Jaune said, hugging Weiss tightly.

Ilia hurried through the crowd and launched herself at Blake, looping her arms around her neck and reaching up on her tip toes to keep from dangling in the air.

Pyrrha leaned down and hugged Ruby, smiling at her.

"It's good to see you all again!" she said.

"In one piece too!" Nora added.

"We were so worried!"

"It's been kind of a crazy trip," Yang said, squeezing Ren tightly before pulling back.

"That's an understatement," Weiss muttered.

"I'm so glad you're all safe," Blake said.

"Wait, where's everyone else?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"They're staying at my sister's," Jaune said, looking rather embarrassed. Nora snickered.

"You're going to love this place!" Nora said.

The ten were pulled into a giant group hug by Nora.

They pulled back and Nora started to pull Oscar down the street.

"Come on! Saphron's probably looking for us!" Nora said, grinning.

Jaune groaned.

They entered Saphron's house a moment later, and heard a crash.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" an unfamiliar voice yelled.

"DAMNIT, NEO!" Ciel shouted.

"Language! There are children present, Friend Ciel!" Penny cried.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I forgot!" she yelled.

"It's fine! Terra's probably said worse!" another voice called.

"I'll have Neo pay you back for that!" Ciel screamed.

"Yes, you will," Ciel muttered.

A moment later, a blond woman raced into the opening hallway, holding a small child in her arms.

"There you are!" Saphron said.

"Is that...?" Yang trailed off.

"Hey, Saph," Jaune said awkwardly.

Ruby gasped in excitedly.

"I can't believe I'm meeting your sister! I have so many questions!" she said.

"Oh, I can give you the rundown later!" 

"Will you guys knock it off?" Jaune snapped.

"What? I love telling stories about my baby brother," Saphron squeezed Jaune's ceeks, and he slapped her hand away.

"I am not a baby! That is a baby," he gestured at the child in Saphron's arms.

Yang and Weiss gasped, as if suddenly seeing the child for the first time.

"Aww, you're so cute! Yes you are! Oh, look at your little face!" Yang said, playing with the baby.

"Aww, coochie-coochie! Aw, baby! Oh my!" Weiss cooed.

Blake and Ruby watched them, both looking very happy, though Blake looked slightly worried when Weiss mentioned something about loving children.

"So Saphron, you're the only Arc living here?" she asked, trying to change the topic.

"Yep! Moved the second I could. Jaune and I are the only two living away from home. I guess he just wanted to be like his big sis."

"I, uh...," he groaned.

"Aw, you didn't deny it!" Saphron said.

Suddenly, the sound of dozens of feet slamming against the ground and doors being thrown open reverberated through the house.

"They're back!" Penny called when she reached the room.

The entirety of their party ran into the hallway, letting out varying sounds of excitement.

There was a loud, unfamiliar voice letting out a loud scream.

"DON'T GET MUD ON THE CARPET!"

"Fox!" Coco called, "This is _not_ your house!"

"It's not my fault! I can't _see_ the carpet **or** the mud!"

"You literally fight Grimm daily. You can handle not stepping on a carpet," Coco growled.

Team CFVY finally entered the room, giving team RWBY wide smiles and tight hugs.

"I wish you would have informed me of your intentions before you left the train," Winter said formally.

Weiss grabbed her sister in a tight hug, burying her face in the crook of her neck.

Winter seemed shocked, not moving for a long moment before she cautiously put her arms around her sister. Weiss tightened her grip, seeking the warmth and comfort in her sister's arms.

When she pulled back, she saw Ruby sprawled out on the ground, Penny grasping her in a tight hug.

"SALUTATIONS!"

-

The group calmed down after a few minutes of reunion, and Weiss glanced at Saphron's wife, who she had learned was named Terra.

A large group of the party was in the kitchen making sandwiches. This group included all of team JNIPR along with Ciel and Neo (who had been adamantly against it, but Ciel had dragged her in to help).

"And you're sure it's alright if we stay with you?" she asked, looking at the large group.

"Of course, we're happy to house Huntsmen and Huntresses, especially those fighting Salem. What Ironwood did was wrong," Saphron said, "Especially friends of my baby brother."

"You all risk so much to keep people like us safe. It's the least we can do," Terra turned to Qrow as she spoke, "Especially for such an elite Huntsman like yourself. Although, I will say I was surprised to learn you had students helping you. Is that even... legal?"

Qrow wasn't listening, and Ruby had to elbow him in the side.

"Uh, of course. Think of it as an extended training mission. Trust me, I was a professor. Even went to the same academy as them. Let me tell ya, these kids are way better than we were at their age."

Team JNIPR came in carrying sandwiches, and Ruby gasped in excitement.

"Well, not better than me specifically, but a lot of students-"

"Shut up, there's food!" Ruby cried.

She raced forward through the use of her semblance to grab the food.

Ruby grabbed a large amount and shoved a few in her face. She'd gotten hold of the entire plate, and Yang reached forward for one, but Ruby slapped her hand. Yang let out a loud noise of protest, and Ruby stuck out her tongue.

She was about to eat a few more, but she glanced to the side and saw Blake eyeing the sandwiches hungrily.

Ruby held out the plate for her, smiling in a slightly shy manner.

Blake's ears straightened, and her eyes widened.

She reached forward, almost as if expecting Ruby to pull the plate back. She took two and grinned while Yang let out a sound in indignation.

"Why does she get food?!"

"Because she always has cookies for me!" Ruby paused to consider, "And she's way prettier than you."

"Hey!" Yang cried.

Blake grinned.

"See? She's way better at flirting."

Blake gave Ruby a quick kiss, getting a few crumbs on her lips and grimacing while Ruby giggled.

Weiss rolled her eyes, about to say something about the two girls being childish, but froze when Blake handed her the second sandwich she'd gotten.

Weiss paused and blushed, making Yang laugh while Weiss hurriedly started to eat to distract herself.

Terra's scroll buzzed.

"Excuse me, I'll be right back," she said.

"Is everything okay?" Blake asked.

"Oh, yeah, it will be. Terra's a technician for the town's relay tower. Unfortunately, the military's radar system is also housed there," she turned to their son, Adrian, and started using baby talk, "Guess what's been on the fritz lately and who's getting falsely blamed."

"Me," Terra said, peeking around the corner.

"So, did Jaune's sister give you two the big sister talk?" Yang asked, glancing at Nora and Ren. They both froze, and Saphron instantly zer"oed in on them.

"Why would I need to do that?"

Yang's eyes widened and she held up her hands, backing away from Saphron and a glaring Nora.

Jaune shook his head, grimacing.

"No reason, Saph," Jaune said.

Saphron raised an eyebrow, looking between the three teammates.

Pyrrha grabbed Ilia's hand and pulled her out of the room in order to avoid the awkward conversation. Team RWBY didn't have the common sense to do the same and were forced to watch.

Saphron crossed her arms, tapping her foot as she looked at the two.

"Which one of you is it?" she asked.

"Which one of us is what, ma'am?" Ren questioned. He was far more composed than Nora, who seemed to be practically shaking from anxiety.

"It's her, isn't it?" Jaune asked, pointing at Nora, "She's a horrible liar."

"Actually, it's...," Jaune sighed, running a hand through his recently cut hair that had made all of the moms in Atlas lose their minds, "both of them."

Saphron seemed shocked for a moment before she grinned.

"Taking after your big sis, huh? A real lady killer," she said, pinching his cheeks again. He batted at her hands. Ren and Nora took this opportunity to attempt an escape, but Saphron turned to face them just as they were about to exit the room.

"And you two, get back here."

They both walked back into the room, Ren looking completely composed while Nora slumped in frustration.

"I know that you're both very up and coming Huntsmen and Huntresses, as Jaune has mentioned you both a lot in his messages home," Jaune groaned while Nora grinned, "so I know that I couldn't win in a fight against you. But trust me, I will ruin your lives. I don't have any connections that could help me make your live a living nightmare, but I can be annoying as heck. I'll sleep outside your door, make you late to work, make you spill your morning coffee. I will be a **major** inconvenience and I _never_ a grudge."

Nora and even Ren looked a bit put off by the odd threat, and they seemed properly scared at the idea, which made Saphron grin.

"Great!" she turned to face team RWBY, "So, what's your plan for tomorrow?" internally, she hoped they intended to take the insane group of children they'd brought to her house, but she didn't say anything about that.

"Well...," Ruby took a big gulp to swallow the food in her mouth, "We're trying to make our way to Atlas. We'll probably start with the military base."

"Back to Atlas? Isn't that where you're wanted?" Saphron asked worriedly.

Ruby nodded.

"Yeah, but we _really_ need to get back."

"Is it worth maybe getting captured?"

"It's worth anything," Weiss said solemnly.

Ruby gave her a quick look of fondness.

"How are we going to get INTO the military base?" Nora cried, "She's right! We're wanted!"

"Not all of us," Qrow said, smirking.

Ilia groaned from outside the room.


	25. What Matters?

"They said no," Coco said, flopping onto the couch.

Velvet pushed her feet off the furniture, which made Terra sigh in relief.

"What do you mean they said no?!" Yang cried.

"They said the border is closed," Coco elaborated.

"They were very rude about it too. The woman in charge even took Maria into the back room for further questioning. She seemed pretty frazzled afterwards, I hope she's okay," Velvet said worriedly.

Maria had entered the house with a small smile and stayed silent, avoiding Ruby's incessant questioning.

Neo, who had been transformed into a random civilian for the duration of their time at the military base, gestured for Penny to translate for her.

'They made out. Or possibly hooked up.'

"What?!" Ruby cried in surprise.

Maria snickered and Ruby grimaced in disgust.

'We could always steal another airship,' Neo signed, Penny translating for her.

"No! You're not stealing anymore of those!" Ciel snapped.

'Your wish is my command, Gorgeous.'

Ciel blushed as everyone glanced at her, getting a hint of how Neo talked, or rather signed, to Ciel on a constant basis.

Neo smirked at Ciel's expression.

"You know, I'm rather liking having you translate for me, Penny. You should do this more often," Penny translated verbatim.

Before the casual conversation could continue, Ruby spun to face Qrow.

"What are we doing now?" she asked

"Yeah, what's the plan?" Nora said.

"The plan? The plan just got shut on our face three times over. I'm going for a drink," he muttered.

Ruby chased after him for a moment.

"Uncle Qrow, I really think we should try and come up with something...," Qrow shut the door behind him, "...together."

"What's his problem? It's not your fault we can't go on," Jaune said.

"If he's gonna be a jerk then we'll just come up with something without him. I mean, we've got Ozpin with us! He usually knows what to do."

Oscar looked down sadly.

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked worriedly.

-

Jaune punched the wall behind him, growling.

"Jaune!" Ruby cried.

"Everything we did was for nothing!" he snapped.

"That's not true," Blake said worriedly.

"Really? Cause it sure does sound like it," Nora said angrily.

"I, um...," Blake trailed off, her ears sagging down.

"If Salem can't be killed, then how are we supposed to win this?" Ren asked.

The entire party was silent.

"Wow... Great plan everyone!" Jaune said sarcastically.

"Look, none of this is great, we know. But we're not the bad guys here," Oscar said, trying to calm him down.

"Are we sure about that?" Jaune snapped.

"What?" Oscar asked, stumbling back some.

"He's in your head, isn't he? Did you already know about this?" Jaune said, pushing Oscar against the wall.

"He didn't know any of it!" Weiss defended him.

"How much longer can we even trust him?!"

"Jaune!" Yang cried.

"How do we even know it's really him?! What if we have been talking to that liar this whole time?!" he snapped.

"Jaune!"

That snapped Jaune out of it, and he let go of Oscar with an apologetic look on his face. He hurried upstairs, and the sound of a door slamming could be heard behind him.

"Is he... gonna be okay?" Yang asked quietly.

"I don't know!" Nora said, hurrying upstairs.

"I think it would be best if we had some time to ourselves," Ren said, following his boyfriend and girlfriend upstairs.

"Has everything... really been for nothing?" Velvet asked quietly.

"I...," Blake faltered, glancing at Ruby.

"No! Of course not! We've saved too many lives for it all to have been pointless!" she said.

"Ren was right... we all need some time to ourselves," Coco said, shepherding her teammates out of the room. Fox and Yatsu seemed stunned, but they let themselves be guided out by Coco.

Ciel and Neo, who had been in over their heads the moment Salem had been mentioned, walked out of the entry hall together, Ciel quietly mumbling and reading her girlfriend's sign language.

Pyrrha, who had been standing still with a blank expression, suddenly stirred. Her eyes widened, as if she suddenly understood what had happened, and she raced out of the house, letting the door close behind her.

"Pyrrha!" Ilia cried, scrambling to follow her girlfriend outside.

Team RWBY considered following the pair, but were halted by Winter's voice.

"That... that can't be true," she muttered.

"It can't be meaningless."

She took a deep breath, trying to rebuild her walls, but they crumbled before her.

"I devoted my life to Ironwood and the fight against Salem! But now... now...," she trailed off, tears in her eyes, and her voice became a wavering sound, "they're both gone."

She hurried out of the room much as Pyrrha had, and Penny followed her, though she too seemed far too stunned.

Team RWBY stood alone in the room together, silence hanging over their heads. At some point during the last few minutes, Oscar had left, but none of the girls seemed to care.

"Did it matter?" Blake asked quietly.

Silence held.

"Of course it was, Blake," Ruby said, stepping closer to the faunus.

Blake took a half step backward.

"Was it?" she asked.

Weiss seemed to agree, and she glanced at Blake worriedly.

"If we didn't get anything else... at least we got each other," Ruby said. She slipped her hand into Blake's own and opened her mouth to continue, but Blake halted her with a bone crushing hug.

Weiss and Yang joined within the next few seconds. The hug was tighter than any of them would normally consider comfortable, but the closeness of their teammates was enough to make up for it.

-

'Are you alright, Gorgeous?' Neo signed.

Ciel sighed, putting her head in her hands.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm alright. It's just...," Ciel trailed off, "how do you go into a fight, knowing that you'll lose? Knowing that everyone you care about is doomed?"

Neo's hand grabbed Ciel's, and the criminal looked into her eyes with a light of compassion.

Ciel was shocked by the gesture. Not the soulful eye contact, but the hand holding. Sure, they were a couple, and they had been for a little bit now, and they had a regular amount of random affection. But Neo's hands were always off limits, if only by an unspoken rule. When Neo put her hand in Ciel's, it wasn't like how it was with most couples. With normal couples, it was a small gesture of affection, but for Neo... her hands were her only way of communication, and she hardly ever gave that up willingly.

Neo's other hand set itself on top of Ciel's, and she looked her in the eyes meaningfully.

Ciel could almost hear the words that Neo was thinking.

'It's going to be alright. I'm right here for you, and I always will be, Gorgeous. There's no getting rid of me, cause I'm here till the end of the road.'

There was a pause, and Neo smiled at her. Ciel wondered for a moment if she'd been misreading Neo's thoughts, but when the criminal leaned forward, moving one hand off of Ciel's own and reaching behind her head. She pulled Ciel's head down, and set it on her shoulder.

'I'd follow you anywhere, invincible she-devil or not.'

-

Pyrrha came to a stop, her breath coming in shallow gulps. She knocked on a familiar wooden door.

"Coming!" a familiar voice called.

Pyrrha slumped against the wall, listening to the pounding sound of her own heart.

The door opened, and Pyrrha spun.

She was met by a short woman with brilliant bright red hair.

"Pyrrha?!" she asked in disbelief.

Pyrrha threw her arms around her mother, collapsing into her arms.

Her mother brought her hands up against her daughter's back, breaking out of her shock and hugging her daughter back.

"Pyrrha, are you-"

"Pyrrha?! PYRRHA!" Ilia cried, catching sight of her girlfriend's distinctive armor. She ran toward her, but froze when she saw the woman she was hugging. Pyrrha had shown her a picture of her mother once, but even if she hadn't, Ilia would have seen the familiarity.

Ilia waited to the side, silent and wondering if she should just leave.

Pyrrha was still crying, but she pulled back and gave her mother a thankful smile.

"Hello, mom," she said awkwardly.

Pyrrha glanced back at Ilia and gave her a sorrowful smile.

"I'm sorry-"

Ilia shook her head quickly.

"No! No, it's alright. I was jstu making sure you were alright. Do you want me to go?"

Pyrrha slipped her hand into Ilia's own, threading their fingers together.

"No. Thank you for coming to check on me," she said.

Ilia nodded quickly, squeezing Pyrrha's hand.

"I'll always come to check on you."

There was a small throat clear in front of them, and they both spun.

Pyrrha's mom gave Ilia a small smile, but her gaze inevitably went back to her daughter.

"Why don't you come inside?"

Pyrrha's eyes welled with tears and she nodded. Ilia let herself be led into the Nikos household.

-

The three women sat in silence until Pyrrha's mother broke it.

"I've been trying to get in contact with you, especially since the fall of Beacon and... since Atlas released a price for your return. Are you alright?"

"My scroll broke at the fall, and I tried to mail you a letter...," Pyrrha thought for a moment, "Ironwood was blocking my mail."

Ilia nodded, but she didn't say a word. She was seated beside Pyrrha on a couch, their hands still connected in between them. The faunus made sure to run her thumb on the back of her girlfriend's hand to comfort her.

"He was blocking your mail? What happened?" Pyrrha's mom asked.

"A... lot of things, but... I don't want to talk about it anymore," Pyrrha said, "Can we just... talk?"

The words seemed inherently contradictory, but her mother nodded, her understanding.

"So who's your friend?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

Ilia glanced at Pyrrha, and her scales turned a light shade of pink.

Pyrrha's mother didn't seem to notice, or perhaps she didn't care.

"Oh, right! Mom, this is Ilia Amitola, my girlfriend."

Ilia awkwardly waved, her scales shifting colors again.

Her mother just smiled.

"It's very nice to meet you, Ilia. I'm glad to see that you've been looking out for my little girl with... whatever's happening."

Ilia tightened her grip on Pyrrha's hand.

"It's an honor to meet you, ma'am, and it's my pleasure," Ilia was able to stutter out.

"Do you need any help, Sweetie?" Pyrrha's mother asked.

Pyrrha shook her head, but slowly.

She hesitated, glancing at Ilia.

"Do you need some time alone?" Ilia whispered.

Pyrrha shook her head, looking frustrated. In all her time knowing Pyrrha, she'd never seen her frustrated. She'd seen her anywhere from angry to happy to excited to calm... but frustrated? Not once.

"No, Ilia, I don't want you to leave, I want you here. I want you here because...," she trailed off, tears once more growing in her eyes.

Ilia's eyes widened and she moved closer to Pyrrha.

"I'm sorry. I'm right here."

Pyrrha turned to her mother, squeezing Ilia's hand tightly.

"Mom? I do need something. I need some advice."

"Anything, sweetie."

"What do you do when you're fighting an enemy that's stronger and bigger and faster than you?"

"You either drop back and look for reinforcements or look for a weakness," her mother said slowly. Her daughter used to quiz herself when she was younger, and this had been a common question.

"But what if they don't have a weakness, and you can't run because people need you?"

"Then... you stand and fight, even though you can't win. You protect the people that need you."

Pyrrha nodded. She'd known this, but hearing the words from her mother's mouth made her feel more sure.

"And what do you do when you've been lied to? Can you ever trust that person again? Does that mean that everything you've done because of that lie is meaningless?"

Her mother seemed worried at the direction these questions had taken, and she glanced at Ilia.

"It... depends. Trust isn't given, it's earned. You confront them about the lie, and then have to make the decision yourself. And it's not meaningless. What you've done is important Pyrrha. I don't know what's happened... recently, I suppose, but...you're a great person Pyrrha, the best I've ever met," Ilia nodded hastily, gripping Pyrrha's hand, "and I know that you've saved so many lives, both literally and figuratively."

"You saved mine," Ilia muttered. Pyrrha gained a hesitant smile, and her mother gave Ilia a long look of both intrigue and thankfulness.

"And what you've done has meant the world. No amount of lies could change that.

Once again, Pyrrha found comfort in her mother agreeing with her thoughts. She started crying again.

"Thanks, mom."

She stood and grabbed her mother in a tight hug, but Ilia was dragged along, as her girlfriend wouldn't let go of her.

When Pyrrha pulled back, she wiped at her eyes, and her mother glanced at Ilia, who smiled awkwardly.

"Of course, sweetie."

Ilia suddenly had an idea, and scrambled to get her scroll out of her pocket with her left hand, which was difficult, considering it wasn't her dominant one. After a moment of fumbling, and a long look from Pyrrha's mother, she was able to get it out of her pocket.

"Here! Pyrrha's been trying to remember your number, but she couldn't. Put it in mine!" she offered.

Pyrrha's mother smiled and grabbed the scroll, glancing at her daughter.

"I like her. Much better than that Jaune fellow you were mooning over last year."

Ilia gained a slightly smug smirk and Pyrrha laughed, finishing wiping her eyes.

As Pyrrha's mother handed Ilia her scroll back, she spoke.

"You got a message from a Blake Belladonna, by the way."

Ilia's eyes widened and she hastened to her contacts.

"Oscar's missing," she said, glancing at Pyrrha.

The redhead slumped.

"How about you stay here and I'll help search?"

Pyrrha nodded, but slowly.

Ilia shook her head and pocketed her scroll

"Never mind, I'm sure they'll find him. I'm here for you."

Pyrrha smiled at her with a look of utmost affection.

-

Winter sat on the couch dejectedly.

Penny sat beside her.

"I'm sorry, Girlfriend Winter," she said.

Winter laughed.

At first, the socially inept Penny thought that was a good thing, but as the laugh became more hysterical, Penny's opinion changed.

"It doesn't matter! None of it matters!" she cried.

Penny reached out and put her hand on Winter's own.

"I... I don't know about anything else. I don't know about Salem. I don't know about Ironwood. I don't even know about my Maiden powers. And I'm not good with emotions and seeing the big picture, as we've talked about... But I do know three things that matter."

Winter glanced at her.

"The lives we've saved, our friends... and you. Because in my short existence, those are the only three things that have ever brought me true joy. The only three things that I've ever truly known were important.

Winter stared at her.

"Why does everything have to matter, when these three things have always been more than enough?"

Winter sat in thought for a moment before she gave Penny the barest hint of a smile. There was a moment of hesitation before she actually smiled.

"You know what? You're right."

She pulled Penny toward her and hugged her tightly. Penny put her arms around Winter and hesitantly applied pressure, not wanting to harm her girlfriend.

Winter started to cry in her arms, and Penny panicked.

"Girlfriend Winter? Is something else wrong? Did I say something I should not have?"

"No, Penny. Sometimes... sometimes you just need to cry."

Penny nodded slowly before pulling her girlfriend closer.

"Then you can cry. I'm right here."


	26. The Search

"Oscar!" Jaune yelled.

"Oscar!" Nora cried.

"This city's enormous, he could've gone anywhere," Ren said.

"I need to call Ilia. Oscar's not the only one missing," Nora muttered, pulling out her scroll.

She clicked on the faunus' contact, and listened to the ringing for a moment, starting to wonder if Ilia was going to pick up.

Finally, the scroll stopped ringing and a familiar voice could be heard.

"Hey, Nora. We're fine, I'm here with Pyrrha. She just wanted to visit her mom."

"You got to meet Pyrrha's mom?! What was she like as a child?!"

Ilia laughed quietly.

"It's not quite like that, she just needed to talk."

Nora nodded in understanding before remembering that Ilia couldn't see her.

"Right. Well, Oscar's missing, we're looking for him. We'll call you when we find him."

"Thanks. I don't know how long this'll take, though."

"Take your time," Ren said over the speaker.

Ilia hung up, presumably to check on Pyrrha again.

"It's my fault... I overreacted," Jaune said.

"I still don't really understand what happened. Was it about the mission?" Saphron asked. She was helping the three of them search. Terra was searching with Adrian and a few other members of their party. Nobody was left in the house at the moment, which was likely a bad idea considering almost everyone was a wanted criminal.

"It's... kind of hard to talk about," Nora said.

"I know, I know, "top secret". Did he... do something wrong?" Saphron asked.

"No... he didn't. We just got some new information and... it's going to be a lot harder than we thought," Jaune said.

"I mean, if it was easy, then it wouldn't be important. Right?" Saphron said.

"I think we're all just a bit unsure of what to do next," Ren said.

"You could... stay in Mistral, get your licenses at Haven, and come back to Argus. There's a lot of good you can do here. I know your mission is important, but it's not like you're the only ones who can do it. It's not the only mission that needs doing," Saphron said.

"Hey, there's a cafe over there. Why don't we get something to warm up?" Nora said.

"I'm okay, you three go ahead," Jaune said.

"You don't want _anything_?" Nora asked, watching as Jaune walked over and sat down on a bench.

"We'll be right back," Ren said, setting his hand on Jaune's shoulder before walking off.

Jaune sighed, burying his head in his hands.

He wondered what a real leader would do. They'd probably not have lost their temper and harassed a child, that's for sure. In fact, he'd seen Ruby do the exact opposite.

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, growling to himself.

Jaune stood, thinking of walking off so his boyfriend and girlfriend couldn't find him when they came back. He just needed some time to think.

Just as he was about to wander off, his scroll rang.

"Pyrrha?" he asked in surprise.

"Hello, Jaune," she said, the small smile clear in her voice.

"I thought you were with your mom."

"I am, but I thought I should call. You sounded really upset earlier, and I thought we should talk."

Jaune fell back against the bench.

"Pyrrha, Oz has made a lot of mistakes, and putting me in charge is one of them."

"No, it's not."

Jaune sighed.

"Pyrrha-"

"No. You're a great leader, Jaune. I'd follow you anywhere, and so would the rest of our team."

"Because I'm dating two of them!"

"No, they'd follow you anywhere, no matter what. We would and we **will** follow you to fight Salem."

"It's a useless fight! We can't even win!"

"Sometimes, winning isn't what you'd think it is. And the most important fights seem impossible."

"That's just something old people say to inspire people."

"The fight against the Grimm has always seemed impossible, Jaune. There's always been too many for Huntresses and Huntsmen to fight. But we still spend our lives learning and then fighting them. And do you know why?"

"Pyrrha-"

"Do you know why?"

"Because we're saving people."

"And even if the best we can do is lay down our lives to delay Salem, it will still save countless lives."

"But they'll only be in danger again!"

"Then the best we can do is hope that someone else will delay her again."

Jaune sat in silence for a minute before a small smile grew on his face.

"You're right."

"She usually is!" Ilia called over the scroll, making Jaune laugh.

"Jaune! We're back!" Nora said in a musical voice.

Jaune kept Ilia and Pyrrha on the scroll and turned to face the rest of his team.

"I'm sorry. I've been a terrible leader, and a terrible friend, and I-"

"Jaune, this has to stop," Ren said.

"We... heard what you said to Cinder, at Haven. You're not being fair to yourself. We love you. We're teammates, family," Nora said.

"We don't want to lose you," Ren said, putting his hand on Jaune's shoulder.

The team leader moved forward and hugged Nora and Ren tightly.

" We should check back in at the house. Come on," Nora said once they'd pulled back.

"Thank you," Jaune muttered into his scroll.

"No thanks needed, Jaune," Pyrrha said.

He hung up, following after Ren and Nora.

-

Ruby stared down at Qrow, who was unconscious on the steps leading up to Saphron and Terra's house.

"I've never seen him this bad," Yang said.

"Come on, let's get him up," Ruby said.

The two each reached down and grabbed him by the arms, tugging him to his feet.

Qrow's eyes opened and looked around.

"Why am I on the stairs?" he asked.

"Probably because no one's home, Uncle Qrow. We've been out looking for Oscar," Ruby said.

"Oscar?" Qrow asked.

Behind them, Saphron, Terra, Jaune, Nora, and Ren walked up.

"I'm sure this looks _great_ to the neighbors," Terra said sarcastically.

Saphron elbowed her.

"No luck?" Ren asked.

"No, you?" said Blake.

"Don't worry, we aren't going to Atlas without him," Jaune said.

"We?" Ruby asked, looking slightly excited.

Jaune turned to Saphron.

"Sorry we won't be staying."

"No you're not," she said, smirking.

"How about we get out of the cold?" Terra suggested.

They walked inside and were met with... Oscar?

"Oh, I was wondering when you'd get back," Oscar said.

"OSCAR!" everyone cried.

Nora let out a loud scream of excitement, and Oscar became worried.

The seven students leapt at him and he let out a cry of shock as he was tackled to the ground in a large hug.

"You had us worried sick!" Weiss said.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"Where were you?" Nora asked.

Oscar smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh..."

"Is something cooking?" Terra asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I thought you guys would appreciate a hot meal after... spending all day looking for me, apparently," Oscar said.

Ruby scrambled to get her scroll out of her pocket in the hug pile, sending out a message to the rest of their party to say they'd found him.

"It's my fault we were all out there in the first place. Oscar, I am _so_ sorry for earlier. I was way, way out of line, and what I said-"

Oscar cut Jaune off.

"No, it's okay. These past few days, I've been scared of the same things you were. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be... me. But I did some thinking, and I do know that I want to do everything I can to help with whatever time I have left."

"Good. This team isn't the same without you, Oscar."

Oscar grinned and Nora gasped.

"Does that make us team JNIPOR?!" she cried.

Before anyone could answer, the smoke alarm started to go off.

"The casserole!" Oscar cried.

Saphron laughed.

"We're on it, chef," she said, her and Terra stepping into the kitchen to take care of the food.

The eight of them scrambled to their feet.

"You're telling me that we searched all day for a guy that was still at home?" Penny asked, watching Neo's hands.

"This is why I don't usually translate for her. She's not very kind," Ciel muttered. "It's good to have you back," she said.

"Friend Oscar!" Penny cried, throwing herself in for a hug and tackling him to the ground once again.

Team CFVY stood in the doorway.

"Who is he again?" Fox whispered.

"Ozpin, I think," Coco said.

"But he's also Oscar," Velvet said.

"My head hurts," Fox muttered.

Qrow started to walk up the stairs, but Ruby spun.

"Where are you going now?" she asked sternly.

"I don't want to get in the way of your celebration," he muttered.

"You've been gone all day! Just sit with us," Ruby demanded.

Qrow sighed.

"Look, Ruby, I'm glad you kids worked out, uh, whatever all that was. But the fact is, we're not a single step closer to Atlas."

"Actually, I think I have an idea. But... it's sort of a "no-going-back" kind of idea," Jaune said.

Ciel sighed as Neo perked up.

"Well, let's hear it," Ruby said.

"With Cordo on watch, only Atlas airships have the clearance to leave for Solitas. So... we... _steal_ an Atlas airship," he shrugged nervously at the end of his statement.

Adrian giggled in Maria's arms, and the old woman wondered if the young boy should be exposed to these insane people, especially at his age.

"Sure, when I suggest it, everyone says I'm crazy, but when lover boy over there does, everyone thinks he's a genius!" Penny translated for Neo.

Ciel slapped her girlfriend, glaring at her.

"How would we even get onto the airfield?" Yang asked, ignoring the bickering couple.

" _That_ part I haven't quite figured out yet. But I-"

Qrow cut Jaune off.

"Okay, stop. Just... stop! Look, if this thing goes south, it's not something we can just fight our way out of. This is the Atlas Military we're talking about, and we're already wanted," Qrow sighed, "For your sake, just drop this."

Everyone looked down, discouraged. Ruby grew determined.

" _I_ want to hear him out," Ruby snapped.

"Ruby...," Qrow started.

" _ **I want to hear him out!**_ I know you're trying to protect us, that you're afraid we can't do it, but right now, I don't really care what you think!" Ruby snapped.

Qrow looked shocked.

"Just because _you_ don't have an idea, doesn't mean _we're_ out of options! Oz hasn't been here to tell us what to do, but we still managed to get this far anyway. We've been in bad situations before, and we don't need an adult to come save us or tell us what to do. We just did it _our_ way! And I say we do it our way," everyone smiled at her words, "And if you think you can keep up with us "kids"... we'd be happy to have you."

Qrow considered for a moment before gaining a small smirk.

"How **are** we going to to get on the airfield?" he asked Jaune.

Jaune glanced around and took a deep breath before starting to speak.

Before he could, the door threw itself open and two figures stood there.

Ilia was panting from having run the whole way keeping up with her girlfriend, but Pyrrha seemed perfectly fine.

"You weren't going to do the planning without us, were you?" Ilia asked between deep breaths.

Blake barely stopped herself from laughing.

"Of course not," Jaune said with a small smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you feel so inclined, comment which rare pair I've used is your favorite and/or least favorite. I'm curious


	27. Falling Apart

So few of their group weren't wanted criminals, so this whole mission would have to go perfect.

Winter stood in front of Cordovin, her eyes intense.

"Special Agent Schnee, I'd heard that you had run away," Cordovin said quietly.

"Do you really believe I would do something like that? I was kidnapped."

Cordovin's eyes widened and she quickly gestured toward the airship.

"Oh, my apologies, Special Agent Schnee, I'll get you an airship to Atlas right away.

"That would be highly appreciated," Winter said, "And I would be very thankful if you would let me take the people who helped me, so they can be properly honored in Atlas."

Neo, in the form of a random civilian they'd found, waved beside team CFVY.

Cordovin seemed hesitant, glancing at her luggage.

"I... suppose that could be arranged, but you of all people would know about th eban at Atlas borders.

"Thank you, ma'am."

Cordovin preened under the attention.

"Of course. I'm honored to help a woman such as yourself, Special Agent Schnee."

Winter gave her a fake smile.

"I'm sending two of my best guards to personally escort you. Make sure hears that part," Cordovin winked and gestured to her guards, who hurried to Winter's side.

"Allow me to assist you with your bag," the first guard said, struggling to lift it, "My, what a heavy bag!"

Winter tightened her grip on her bag.

"That's alright," she said, "I am more than capable of carrying my luggage."

She silently apologized to the person crouched in the bag for being jostled around.

"Nonsense!" the first guard said.

"Allow me to assist as well!" the second said, hurrying forward.

"I can take care of it by myself," Winter said calmly, pulling the luggage closer to herself.

Cordovin turned to look at Winter and the guards.

Saphron, who had escorted Winter, team CFVY, and Neo here, leaned down to speak to her son.

"Just like we practiced," she whispered.

Adrian started to cry, and the two guards spun.

"Oh no! Look at that, he's just going to miss you so much! You should hurry on out of here!" Saphorn said, her acting poor.

"A crying child?" the first guard said.

"We must console it!"

The two guards hurry over toward Adrian, making weird faces to amuse him.

"That was close," Winter muttered, pulling the luggage onto the airship. Team CFVY and Neo hurried on board.

"Is everything okay?" Ruby asked over the earpiece.

"Call me heavy... It's all muscle! I'll show them a thing or two about heavy!" Maria griped from inside the luggage.

"We're on board," Winter muttered into her earpiece.

-

Ruby, Weiss, team JNIPR, Oscar, Qrow, Penny, and Ciel stood at the edge of the forest together.

"Alright, we'll all watch our scrolls. The second Weiss is out of range of the comm tower, that'll mean she's out of range of the radar too," Ruby said.

"And that's when Blake steps in. We're almost at the drop off," Yang said.

-

Blake was holding onto Yang on the back of the motorcycle they'd found a few days ago, her scroll out as she received instructions from Terra.

"Okay, remember: one, the radar box is separate from the rest of the communications equipment. So if you disconnect it properly, it won't take out comms for the rest of the city. Two, this conversation never happened," Terra said.

Blake gave her a small smile.

"Don't worry, this isn't the first time I've disabled Atlas security," the faunus said.

Terra was looking back at her, unamused.

"Never. Happened."

Blake hung up as Yang pulled the motorcycle to a stop.

"You sure I shouldn't come with?" Yang asked worriedly.

"More intruders means we're more likely to be seen. Besides, stealth isn't exactly your, um..."

Yang crossed her arms and stared at Blake, unamused.

"I mean, you're great! And I'll hurry back," Blake said, smiling.

Yang laughed, shaking her head fondly.

"Go."

Blake gave her a smile in return before heading off, speaking into her earpiece.

"Heading in on foot. Won't be long."

-

"Yes! It's all going to plan!"

Jaune glanced at his teammates, seeing them all watching him with neutral expressions.

Jaune cleared her throat.

"I mean, uh... roger," he corrected.

Ruby watched Qrow, who was leaning against a tree with an uneasy look on his face.

Weiss put her hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's going to work."

Ruby gave her a small smile, nodding.

"Yeah."

-

Winter watched the two guards as they floated to the ground via a parachute.

"This parachute won't excuse you of your treachery!" a guard cried.

"Yeah, yeah," Winter muttered, unzipping her luggage and revealing Maria.

Neo sprinted to the front, her disguise melting as she returned to her normal form, and took the controls of the airship, piloting it with ease.

"How many of these have you stolen?" Coco asked, leaning against the wall and watching the criminal.

Neo raised her hand and held up two fingers.

"Only two?" she asked.

Neo shook her head.

"Twenty?!" Coco cried.

Neo nodded before waving her hand in a manner that seemed to say 'give or take a few.'

Velvet glanced at Coco, looking slightly worried.

"Should we trust her?" she whispered.

"Too late now," Coco muttered.

-

"Alright guys, this is it. Blake, you're up," Ruby said into her ear piece.

There was a moment of silence.

"Blake?"

"I got it," the faunus said, "Yang, I'm on my way."

Yang started up her motorcycle.

Blake raced out of the central comms tower.

"They spotted me," she said into her earpiece, "we have to move."

Blake leapt onto the bike, looping her arms around Yang's waist.

-

Winter watched out of the front window as Neo guided the airship to the ground, the majority of their party waiting for them anxiously on the ground.

"There they are," she pointed.

Neo glared at her in a way that seemed to say 'Yeah, I'm mute, not blind.'

The airship hovered by the edge of the cliff, and Neo slammed her hand on the button to open the side door.

Their friends raced onto the airship, but Ruby and Weiss hesitated.

"Is everyone on board?" Coco called from the front.

"We're waiting for Blake and Yang!" Ruby called.

"Come on," the team leader muttered to herself.

There was a moment of tense silence before the distant sound of an engine could be heard. A second later, a motorcycle burst into the clearing, and Yang hurriedly slowed it down, causing the bike to skid to a stop just as it entered the airship.

"Now!" Weiss cried.

Neo's hand slammed on the airlock, and the door closed just as Ruby and Weiss leapt inside, as they'd been waiting outside for their missing teammates.

Neo brought the airship up just as a large group of comm tower guards raced out onto the cliff, having been chasing Blake and Yang on the motorcycle.

Ciel slapped Neo on the arm as the criminal silently laughed, flashing the guards a particular finger.

Just as they started to pull away from the city of Argus for good, the deafening sound of a Leviathan-class Grimm could be heard. It was impossibly tall, and behind it flew dozens upon dozens of regular sized Grimm. It roared again, taking another set and parting the sea in front of it, causing a huge tidal wave that rocked against the shores of Argus.

"I suppose I have to be the bad guy and say it, getting the lamp to Atlas is still our top priority, and right now we have the perfect opportunity to head straight for it. We may not get another chance like this," Maria said. Neo gestured emphatically at her, as if in agreeance.

Ciel smacked her on the arm, harder this time, and Neo winced, rubbing her arm with a small glare.

"No way!" Yang cried.

"We can't leave the city to burn!" Pyrrha cried.

"We can't leave, not like this," Weiss said.

"A Huntress or Huntsman is supposed to protect others to the bitter end," Penny said sagely.

Ruby looked around the airship, finding everyone nodding in agreement, even Neo.

"We need to head for the Leviathan. Jaune, can you and Ren be ready to mask our ship?" she asked.

"I think we can manage," Ren said.

"Got a few ideas?" Jaune asked.

"I've got one," Ruby said.

"Eyes up, everybody. It's back," Qrow said.

Neo turned the airship around and guided it toward the giant Grimm, which had sunk into the water, swimming toward the city.

In front of Argus, a hard-light Dust barrier arose from the ocean, towering in front of the giant Grimm. It rose to its feet, conjuring an energy beam from its mouth. It tore down the wall immediately.

"It tore straight through...!" Oscar cried, the party watching from the airship in disbelief.

"We can stop it!" Ruby said confidently.

"We can?" Jaune asked, eyes wide.

"I can," Ruby said determinedly.

"Ruby, when I said "trial by fire"-"

The young team leader cut Maria off.

"I did it at Beacon, in Atlas, and at the farm," Ruby said.

"You really think you can do it now?" Weiss asked worriedly.

"I don't have a choice."


	28. Leviathan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have OFFICIALLY reached the end of being able to kind of shadow canon. Go me!

"We can hit it while it's stopped at the next barrier. Ren, you're up!" Ruby called.

Neo guided the airship in between Grimm expertly while Jaune set his hand on Ren's arm, using his own semblance to enhance Ren's. The entire airship suddenly turned gray, and Neo let out a breath of relief as the Grimm seemed to stop noticing their attack. The Argus military had several ships out fighting, and Neo hoped that their own blended in with the rest.

The giant Grimm charged up its energy blast.

"We're too late! Pull up!" Qrow cried.

Neo did as instructed, barely avoiding the energy blast that took down the next wall.

"Damn it!" Jaune cried, toppling to the ground. Ren followed suit, their Auras drained.

"That's all I've got!" Ren called.

The ship bled its gray shade, and Neo growled, having to avoid a Grimm that suddenly swooped toward them. Ciel set her hand on the pilot's seat to steady herself, turning around to speak for Neo.

"Neo told everyone to calm down! We're attracting the Grimm now!"

Everyone tried to settle themselves, but it was understandably difficult.

"It's on the move again! We need to stop it!" Blake called.

"What do we do?" Yang asked.

Ruby thought for a moment before turning to the heavy hitters of the party, namely Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, Penny, and Coco.

"Open the hatch!" Coco called, hurrying to the back and letting her bag turn into its more intimidating form. Velvet followed her hastily.

Neo, slightly distracted, hit the button.

"Pull us up beside it!" Ruby called.

"Neo says you guys have a death wish!" Ciel said, seeing it in the criminal's eyes.

Despite herself, Neo did as instructed.

"Eyes on us, ugly!" Nora called. They started firing their weapons, Velvet copying Coco's weapon to assist them.

"Is it working?" Blake called.

"Unfortunately, yes! Hang on!" Ciel called for Neo's sake, grabbing onto the criminal's shoulders to steady both of them as Neo had to turn the airship sharply.

Blake grabbed onto Weiss to steady her, as she was focusing on a glyph she'd had to summon.

Ruby was soaring through the sky on top of a Queen Lancer summoning.

"Okay, okay, you can do this... You have to do this!" Ruby muttered to herself.

She stopped in front of the Leviathan, closing her eyes to help her focus.

"Ruby? Ruby, hurry, something-"

Yang's voice was a distraction as it came through the air piece, so Ruby ripped it out of her ear and threw it to the side, ignoring it as it flew toward the ocean.

Ruby opened her eyes and found herself face to face with the giant Grimm.

"What?!" she cried in shock.

"Why'd it turn away?!" Yang shouted.

Ruby suddenly remembered the lamp at her belt and panicked. That's what had attracted the Grimm.

"No, no, no, no!!" she called.

The Grimm opened its mouth and lunged at her.

"JINN!" Ruby shouted.

Time slowed, and Ruby barely heard her three teammates calling out her name in fear. She let out a breath of relief, staring at the Grimm in front of her warily.

She heard the rattling of chains and she winced.

"I'm sorry... I don't have a question for you. I just... I just needed a little more time..."

"I know... and while you don't seek knowledge, just this once, I shall give it freely. I will _not_ allow you to use me without a question again...," Jinn smiled, "Even if this was clever."

Ruby gave her a thankful smile before hurriedly closing her eyes, thinking of her friends, her teammates... the people she loved.

Time slowly started to gain momentum again, and Ruby's eyes flashed open. They shone the brightest they've ever done. In the light of her eyes, the Grimm turned to stone. Cheering erupted from the citizens and her party, and Ruby grinned.

But the creature's head suddenly broke free, turning to face Ruby.

"No...," Ruby muttered, frozen still.

A giant mechanical human appeared suddenly from the Argus barracks.

It slammed against the Grimm.

The mechanical arm turned into a drill and it slammed against the Grimm as well.

After a moment, the Grimm turned into dust.

The mechanical creature slowly turned, trying to see who had turned the Leviathan to stone, but Weiss reacted instantly, using her summoning to bring her girlfriend back into the airship.

"NOW!" Weiss screamed.

Neo's hand slammed against the button and the hatch closed.

The mechanical creature, piloted by Cordovin, turned and started to attack the other Grimm.

"They can handle the rest. Get us out of here!" Qrow called.

Neo certainly didn't need to be told twice, and she pushed the airship away from the fight and toward Atlas, slipping away without being noticed by the Argus military in the chaos.

Ruby was tackled by her teammates in a tight hug, and she laughed, barely staying on her feet. She didn't get the chance to say anything before a myriad of others joined in, including team JNIPR and Penny, who squeezed them all far too tightly.

When the others finally pulled away and Ruby could breathe, Qrow stepped up beside her.

"Hey, Ruby. You did great out there today, kid. Just don't go giving me heart attacks like that again," he said ruffling her hair. He raised his flask to take a drink, but hesitated for a moment before putting it back down.

Ruby hugged him.

"I love you, too."

Qrow smiled at his niece before she hurried to her friends and teammates.

"Neo says we should have just enough fuel to make it!" Ciel called.

That seemed to relax the rest of the party even further, and they dissolved into conversations.

"Ruby, I didn't know you could do... **that**!" Coco cried.

"Do what?"

"You froze a Leviathan with you **eyes**!" Nora cried.

Ruby laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Yeah, I guess."

The group continued to talk excitedly before Ciel called from the front

"We're just about at the first stop!"

Almost everyone sighed in frustration, as if today hadn't been long enough, there was still more to be done.


	29. A New Mission

Neo pulled the airship to the side of Atlas, having barely avoided the Atlas guard through a mixture of distractions and Ren's semblance amplified by Jaune's.

She opened the hatch, watching as team RWBY, team JNIPR, Penny, Oscar, Maria, and Qrow stepped outside.

Ciel was about to leave, but Neo grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her in for a passionate kiss.

When she pulled back, Ciel seemed just slightly dazed, and Neo laughed, shooting her a wink. Ciel stepped off the ship, leaving just Winter, Neo, and team CFVY on board. Neo shimmered for a moment before she transformed into the random civilian from before. She had light blue eyes and pale blond hair now, and she stood taller than her normal form. She grinned with unfamiliar lips and took the airship higher, heading toward where she knew General Ironwood would be.

She glanced back at her passengers, raising an eyebrow at some of their hesitation.

She wished that someone was here to translate for her, but she knew that nobody here knew sign language, so she'd have to rely on her expressions to get her point across for the next few days. She'd barely left the safe house they'd dropped the others off at, but she already found herself missing more than a few. Other than Ciel, she found herself particularly wishing that Penny was here, as that girl was always a riot.

-

"So... what's the plan again?" Jaune asked nervously.

They were all hiding out in a small warehouse at the moment, and it was more than a little cramped for the large party.

"Team CFVY and Neo enroll as new students while Winter convinces everyone that she was kidnapped and returned by her new friends to help them become more trusted. They figure out where the Staff is being held. Then Winter lowers the Atlas defenses and we get inside, stealing the Staff before Salem has the chance to," Oscar recited.

"But... isn't the staff holding Atlas up?" Ruby asked.

There was a moment of silence.

"The plan is to gently set Atlas down using the staff, _then_ steal it," Oscar said.

"Where do we put it?" Jaune asked.

"I'll... figure that out," Oscar said, pulling out his scroll and starting to look through it to find a map of the surrounding area.

Ruby let out a sigh, her body suddenly sagging as the day's events caught up with her. Blake grabbed Ruby to steady her at the sudden exhaustion, guiding her to a sitting position.

Weiss kneeled down beside them and Yang joined a moment later, the three leaning against the wall behind them while Ruby sank into Blake's arms, her eyes slowly fluttering shut. Ruby suddenly remembered something, and forced her eyes open.

"Oscar, I wanted you to have this," she said, fumbling with her belt to unclip the lamp. Weiss saw her struggle and did it for her, slipping the relic into Ruby's hands.

The team leader held it up to Oscar, a tired smile on her face.

Oscar seemed uncertain.

"Are you sure... I mean... _he's_ still in there somewhere."

Ruby pushed the relic closer to him.

"I trust you."

Oscar smiled and slipped the relic into his belt loop, a hand resting against it gently.

Ruby fell asleep, and everything else seemed to slip away.

Tomorrow would be a new day, a new mission. But she'd face it with the rest of them. With her friends, with her sister, with her girlfriends... with the people she loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnd that's a wrap! Part three's up! Goodbye forever, everyone!
> 
> Lmao jk part four will be started today


End file.
